Japanese Texans

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The Japanese Texans
by Thomas K. Walls
Copyright @1987, 1996
The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
801 South Bowie Street, San Antonio, Texas 78205-3296
Rex H. Ball, Executive Director
Produced by the staff of the Institute Production Division
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 87-50131
International Standard Book Number 0-86701-073-8
Second Edition, 1996
This publication was made possible in part by
the Houston Endowment, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
contents
Preface 7
Chapter One 9
Chapter 1Wo 19
Chapter Three 39
Chapter Four 81
Chapter Five 101
Chapter Six 123
Chapter Seven 143
Chapter Eight 175
Chapter Nine 205
Epilogue 229
Appendix 231
Acknowledgments 233
Sources 235
Photo Credits 247
Index 251
preface
At the turn of the century there were 13 Japanese living
in Texas. Forty years later, prior to World War II, there were about
500 Japanese in the state; by 1980 that number had risen to 10,502.
While this may seem quite a substantial increase, Japanese Texans
still constitute less than one-tenth of one percent of the total
population of Texas. Also, their numbers are growing quite slow­ly.
For example, in 1970 they were the most numerous Asian­American
group in Texas, but by 1980 they were sixth behind
the Vietnamese, Chinese, (Asian) Indians, Filipinos and Koreans.
"Why write a book about so few people?" is a question
that is certain to come to mind.
A partial answer is that there are special reasons why the
Japanese-Texan population is small. When the Japanese began
coming to the United States more than a hundred years ago, there
was considerable anti-Chinese prejudice among inhabitants of
the West Coast. Soon unfavorable attitudes toward the Japanese
developed as well and were eventually passed from one genera­tion
to the next. In 1924 a growing anti-Japanese movement influ­enced
the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act, a federal law which,
in part, prohibited further immigration of Japanese to the United
States. With the exception of war brides after World War II,
Japanese were not allowed to settle in this country again until
1952, when Congress passed the McCarran-Walter Act.
Although few in number, Japanese Texans deserve recog­nition
for their contributions to the state. Already there are fourth-
7
and ilfth-generation Japanese Texans, and this book is a story of
their ancestors. But it is more than that.
It is also a story of the relationship between Japanese
Texans and their neighbors. In the past Texas was fairly isolated
from the strong anti-Japanese feelings of those living on the West
Coast. For this reason, there was a greater opportunity for Texans
to see beyond the popular West Coast caricature of the Japanese.
Nonetheless, this positive relationship between Japanese Texans
and their neighbors was punctuated from time to time with
periods of ill will. Such animosity was usually associated with
broader issues and common feelings found throughout the coun­try.
For example, hostility against Japan during World War II led
to legislation which put more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese
ancestry into relocation and internment camps, several of which
were located in Texas. This created the sad and ironic situation
in which Japanese-American soldiers in France were fighting to
rescue a battalion of the 36th (Texas) Division, while back in Texas
many of their relatives were spending the war behind barbed wire
with armed guards.
Such inconsistency in the treatment of Japanese Ameri­cans
was caused in part by a lack of understanding by the general
public. The result has been mixed opinions about Japanese Amer­icans,
so that even today they are misunderstood by many. If the
chain of misunderstanding is ever to be broken, the Japanese must
be seen in terms that go beyond the stereotypes and misconcep­tions
of the past. And if a story about the lives and times of
Japanese in Texas can give us such a view, then it is a story well
worth telling.
1890
3
1940
458
Japanese Population* of Texas
1900
13
1950
957
1910
340
1960
4,053
1920
449
1970
6,537
1930
519
1980
10,502
'u.s. Census counts, especially those reflecting national origin or heritage, must be viewed
with some reservation. "Race;' 'country of origin;' "foreign born;' "foreign stock" and "nativity"
are all terms that have been used at one time or another by the u.s. Census to differentiate
the Japanese and other minorities from one another. The use of such different criteria
has resulted in totals that vary according to the criteria themselves. With this in mind,
the above totals should be treated as "best guesses," since they are, in any case, the best
information available.
8
one
For most Americans December 7, 1941, began like any
other Sunday in December. With Christmas only 17 days
away, morning newspapers carried advertisements for
gifts alongside local and national news. While headlines spoke
of negotiations with Japan and of the war in Europe, such trouble
seemed too far away and remote to have any real bearing on daily
routine. As an editorial in The Houston Post had said only two
days earlier:
Few Americans even now understand the gravity of the
situation ... . Main Street still believes that somehow this
Far Eastern crisis will dissolve as others have dissolved in
the past. The average American man·in·the·street echoes the
blunt remark of Senator Tom Connally, chairman of the
Senate commit tee on foreign relations, who said a few days
ago, "Aw, the Japanese are just bluffing:'
But the Japanese were not bluffing. This fact had conse­quences
for both the United States and for Japan, and also for
a small group of less than 500 people living in Texas. These people
were a group, but not because they were from one community.
On the contrary, they resided in at least 20 different counties,
9
from El Paso in the west to Orange in the east, and from Dallas
and Tarrant counties in the north to Cameron County in the south.
They were a group because of their common Japanese ancestry.
An estimated one-third of this group were not American
citizens. They were the Japanese issei. Issei (pronounced ee-say)
is a term used by the Japanese meaning "first generation:' They
were the pioneers from Japan who first migrated to the u.s. But
they, along with all other Asians born outside the United States,
were forbidden by a federal law passed in 1790 from becoming
citizens. This legislation stated that, in order for an alien to become
a citizen, he or she had to be a "free white person:' Subsequent
changes in the law gave American blacks, blacks from Africa and
other Asian groups the right of citizenship, but not until 1952 were
Japanese given this privilege. All children, however, no matter
what their skin color, have always received American citizenship
if born in the United States. Indeed, the children of Japanese
immigrants, although calling themselves nisei, considered
themselves 100 percent "American:' Nisei (pronounced nee-say)
is a Japanese term simply meaning "second generation" and is a
way of referring to the children of the issei.
Nisei children at Easter picnic, League City, 1936
10
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Japanese-American gathering in Harris County Park, c. 1936
For the most part the issei, too, saw themselves as Ameri­cans,
even if they were not legally considered so. Most of them
had spent the majority of their lives in the United States, and
few entertained any thought of ever returning to Japan. But what
was about to happen 3,000 miles away soon made it irrelevant
whether these Japanese felt "American" or not. Because of events
of a sunny Sunday morning in Hawaii in 1941, anyone of Japanese
ancestry, no matter where he or she lived, became "Japs" in the
eyes of America.
For several weeks prior to December 7th the international
situation between Japan and the United States had been tense.
Negotiations to iron out the differences between the two nations
were being conducted in Washington, D.c. While the situation
was seen as serious, it was not yet thought to be threatening:
Washington, December 6-Much of the credit for
avoiding a clash with Japan at this time ... must be given
to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. It is, of course, premature
to say that war in the Pacific has been avoided altogether, for
the situation continues to be strained and dangerous. But
while betting a little over a week ago in the highest Washing­ton
circles was 10 to 1 that the guns would be barking before
the end of last week, there is now a strong feeling that the
Pacific crisis has been postponed, at least for a while .. ..
(San Antonio Express!
11
The Houston Post article printed two days before was a
little more accurate:
The Orient . . . is like a charge of dynamite with wires
running to Tokyo, London, and Washington. A spark from one
of those capitals will set off the explosion.
At 7:55 on the morning of December 7, 1941, the first of
two massive waves of Japanese planes descended in a surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor and Hickham Field near Honolulu, Hawaii.
Stateside news of what was happening was not only scarce and
often inaccurate but also heavily censored.
Ten Ten Dock, U.S. Naval Station, Pearl Harbor, after the attack
Although most Texans probably first heard of the attack by
word of mouth, some, like the Akagi family of Sheldon, were
listening to the family radio when the horrible news was
announced. The Akagis were vegetable farmers who sold their
products in nearby Houston. For the adults Sunday was much
like any other day of the week, since there was always work to
12
be done in the nelds. The children, however, were listening to
the radio when the nrst news bulletins were broadcast Sunday
afternoon. The patriarchal head of the family, Fukutaro, and his
wife, Ju, did not know of the attack until later in the afternoon
after putting in a full day's work. Perhaps it was the shock of
discovery mixed with her fatigue that caused 56-year-old Ju Akagi
to fall back in her chair repeating, liN 0, it can't be. It just can't be:'
There were others too who could not believe what had
happened. Goro Matsuoka and his wife, Teri, were having a picnic
with two friends, Robert and Rola Saibara, in San Antonids
Brackenridge Park when a news bulletin from their car radio
announced the attack. The four picnickers at nrst thought it was
another radio play similar to Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds.
Just three years earlier on the eve of Halloween, Welles's radio
adaptation of H.G. Wells's novel had caused panic throughout the
country by its realistic portrayal of news broadcasts reporting an
invasion from Mars. It was thus natural for the Matsuokas and
Saibaras to be a little skeptical, particularly since the news was
so bad. But when it was announced that all military personnel
were to report to their posts, the stunned foursome gathered the
remains of their picnic and left. Robert Saibara, a Japanese Texan
and a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, continued on to Fort Sam
Houston, where he reported for duty.
The surprise nature of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the
large loss of American life led to bold newspaper headlines:
JAPS BUTCHER AMERICANS
Hundreds Believed Killed When Waves
of Dive Bombers Swoop Down Upon Hawaii
Japanese Airbomb All Major U.S.-British
Pacific Possessions and Invade Thailand;
Jap Airplane Carrier, 4 Subs Reported Sunk,
6 Planes Downed
Invaders Spread Death and Destruction in
Honolulu, Attack Guam, Seize Wake,
Claim U.S. Warship Sunk, Another Fired
13
While much of America's military power in the Pacific had
been immobilized, defensive preparations on the "home front"
went ahead with surprising swiftness:
Austin -To guard against the possibility of air attack,
approximately 800 air raid warning posts manned by civilians
have been organized in Texas .... (From The Austin American)
Harlingen, Tx., Dec. 9 - lAP} - The 40-mile long Rio
Grande Valley from Weslaco to Brownsville was blacked out
TUesday night under an order from Major Grover C. Good­rich,
commander of Fort Brown, who announced it was a test.
Army planes, he said, would fly over the Valley, in the
southern most part of the state, to check the effectiveness of
the blackout. Sirens warning of an air raid were sounded. The
lights were ordered turned off shortly after 11 p.m. Major
Goodrich said the blackout would not be lifted until daylight.
(From the San Antonio Express)
Houston-City and federal officials went into action here
Sunday night to guard against sabotage in the rich Gulf Coast
industrial area, while the civilian population took the news
of the Japanese attack calmly .... (From The Houston Post)
Washington, December 8 - lAP} -The EB.I. announced
it was "completely mobilized and ready" to deal with Japanese
espionage and sabotage.. . (From The Austin American)
Sabotage, especially by Japanese living in the United
States, was feared by many officials. Ultimately this fear led to
the arrest of numerous "enemy aliens" suspected of "hostile intent
or action against national security:' An enemy alien was any person
living in the United States who was a citizen of a country at war
with the U.S. This meant that all Japanese issei, as well as German
and Italian citizens living in the United States, were now enemy
aliens and thus were subject to detention.
Across Texas, and across the country, selected Japanese
were picked up by the authorities. In Dallas at least six men were
arrested, three of whom were prominent cotton buyers. One man,
who was trying to return to his home in Minneapolis after a visit
to San Antonio, was arrested at the bus station. The biggest round­up
in Texas, however, was in the Houston area, where the FBI
and local law enforcement officers sprang into action less than
24 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor:
The federal bureau of investigation rounded up an undis­closed
number of Japanese in Houston, Galveston and Orange
shortly before dawn Monday.
14
Presumably most of them were aliens. After questioning
they were turned over to the immigration department, appar­ently
for internment during the war with Japan.
The roundup proceeded like clockwork.
Apparently zero hour for the Houston roundup was
5 a.m., for a number of F.B.I. agents and five Houston city
detectives were seen leaving the F.B.I. offices at that time.
(From The Houston Post}
Prior to December 7th, FBI agents had kept law-abiding
Japanese immigrants and German and Italian aliens under peri­odic
surveillance. When war began, the FBI made arrests from
these groups, using lists of persons thought to be dangerous. For
the Japanese, at least, "dangerous" was loosely defmed to mean
anyone who was a leader within the Japanese community.
Once they were arrested, these enemy aliens had no legal
recourse. Even their right to a writ of habeas corpus, which would
have allowed them to see a judge, was denied by presidential
order. They were forced to wait until the Department of Justice
developed procedures to handle their cases. Only then could they
. defend themselves in court.
Shortly after these arrests the government froze the bank
accounts of all enemy aliens, including the issei. This put a severe
hardship on nearly every Japanese family in the country, espe­cially
on those with family members in jail.
Japanese who ran large businesses were particularly vul­nerable
during this time. To show their loyalty, Kichimatsu Kishi,
an Orange County rice farmer who had organized the Orange
Petroleum Company, and Kaname Susuki, the president of the
company, offered themselves to the police for arrest. The police
readily accepted the offer:
Port Arthur, December 8 - (AP) -TWo wealthy Japa­nese
nationals from Orange were held in Jail Monday and
guards were placed over records of the oil company they
operated .. . .
Their families were among a dozen other Japanese put
under close surveillance ....
Deputy sheriffs quoted one of the Japanese as saying "they
must be crazy over there. I'd rather be in jail here than free
there:' (From The Austin Statesman}
All the measures taken against the Japanese in Texas
caused many to withdraw from the Anglo community. Because
15
of their difficulties with English, some Japanese had always
preferred the company of those who spoke their own language,
but now many felt forced into such a position. Their isolation
was even more complete because many had family and friends
in Japan with whom communication was now impossible.
Some Japanese also felt responsible and ashamed for what
Japan had done at Pearl Harbor. In the media public officials were
characterizing the attack as "dastardly;' "treacherous;' "cowardly;'
"a stab in the back:' President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his address
to Congress asking for a formal declaration of war, called Decem­ber
7, 1941, "a date that will live in infamy:'
Despite such negative public opinion, some Japanese
Texans felt compelled to speak out. The nisei, born and reared
in the United States, were more likely than their elders to stand
up and declare their allegiance. They considered themselves as
American as the sons and daughters of the Irish, Swedish and
Czech Americans who were their neighbors.
One of those Japanese-American patriots was a young man
named Henry Kawahata. A native of the Texas Upper Rio Grande
Valley, Kawahata was a Texas A&M graduate and worked with
his father on the family farm. On the day Pearl Harbor was
bombed, Henry and his father were inspecting a cauliflower fIeld
owned by a Japanese farmer friend. When the friend rushed over
from his house to tell them about Pearl Harbor, Henry and his
father immediately left for home some 75 miles away. Because
his father was now an enemy alien, Henry feared for the older
man's safety. The next day, despite his ingrained respect for his
father's homeland, Henry was quoted by the McAllen Daily Press
as saying, "I'm ready to fIght for the United States against Japan,
even if I have to kill some of my cousins .... We're for the United
States 100 per cent:'
A few days later, at a weekly Rotary Club meeting, Henry
spoke up again. The story appeared in the San Antonio Express:
McAllen, December 12 - (AP) - A young Japanese born
in the United States stood before the McAllen Rotary Club
to make a statement. The youth was Henry Kawahata, son
of Jimmy Kawahata, for years one of the Upper Valley'S more
successful and widely known farmers. Henry is also a suc·
cessful farmer in his own right. He has been a member of
the club for several months.
16
Fred Chiutaro Maizumi registering at the San Antonio police station,
December 8, 1941, declaring japan, "can never hope to win this war.
It would be like the foolish monkey attacking the elephant."
He walked to the speaker's table and addressed the club.
"While I am of Japanese extraction, I am a born American.
All of my sisters were born in America. In this war with Japan,
I - and my family - salute the Stars and Stripes and pledge
allegiance to the United States of America:'
Then he snapped to attention and saluted the flag ....
17
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Okayama
Kyoto
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SHIKOKU
Satsuma
KYUSHU
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.ory
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HOKKAIDO
Tokyo (EdoJ
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two
However dramatic were the events of late 1941, the story
of Japanese Texans begins almost a century earlier with
the opening of Japan to Western influence. In 1853, less
than eight years after Texas was admitted to the Union, Commo­dore
Matthew C. Perry sailed a fleet of four American warships
into Edo (now Tokyo) Bay, effectively ending more than two
centuries of Japan's government-imposed isolation from the rest
of the world. This act also led to the beginning, 16 years later,
of Japanese emigration to the United States. Less than two decades
after that, in the late 1880's, a few Japanese settled in the Lone
Star State, thus laying claim to the title of "first Japanese Texans:'
To understand how all these events are connected, some knowl­edge
of Japanese history and what Japan was like at the time of
Perry's arrival is needed.
In the mid-16th century the first Europeans to visit Japan
found a decentralized society where powerful feudal lords, or
clan leaders, called daimyo (dime-yo), controlled and protected
hereditary fiefdoms with the help of samurai warriors. Among
the daimyo there was much rivalry and bad blood, an inevitable
19
result of years of frequent warring on one another. In 1603,
however, Ieyasu Tokugawa, the head of the Tokugawa family,
declared himself shogun, a term in use since A.D. 1192 referring
to a military ruler of Japan. In an alliance with other clans, Ieyasu
was able to subdue all his rivals and bring peace to the country
by 1615. The government he established was called the Tokugawa
shogunate and included in it those daimyo who had given him
support. Although Ieyasu's former opponents were allowed to
retain control over their own fi.efdoms in return for pledges of
loyalty, they were excluded from positions of power in the new
government. Because of this and because their territories were
far from the shogunate's capital in Edo, these daimyo became
known as tozama, or "outside lords:'
The fi.rst years of the Tokugawa shogunate were shaky
ones. There was fear in the clan that the tozama were plotting
insurrection, possibly with the help of Europeans whose trading
interests would be furthered if certain tozama were in power.
There was added concern over the presence of Christian mis­sionaries
who had made at least half a million converts among
Early European missionaries
with Japanese converts
.~~ .
i
the Japanese. The Tokugawa rulers felt these missionaries were
troublemakers, stirring up discontent among the peasantry. They
20
also saw them as an advance guard for a European conquest of
the country. Thus, when it was alleged in 1624 that the Catholic
Church was involved in a Spanish plot to invade Japan, the shogun
ordered all Spaniards out of the country and began persecuting
all Japanese Christians. In 1638, after a bloody peasant uprising
led by Japanese Christians was quelled, all other foreigners were
expelled. Foreign contact was completely severed except for a
trading outpost manned by a few Dutch and Chinese on a small
island in the south. At the same time, Japanese citizens were for­bidden
to leave Japan upon pain of death. With these acts began
an isolation that lasted more than 200 years.
The next two centuries were relatively peaceful for Japan.
There were no civil wars or foreign invasions. The Tokugawa clan
continued its rule despite increasing problems with the feudal
economy. As in any feudal system, the peasantry formed the
backbone of the country; without their labor, there would be no
food . But with the slowly increasing acceptance of the use of
money in Japan, a class of merchants arose whose power grew
in proportion to the size of their money coffers. By lending their
money, these merchants used their wealth to gradually gain con­trol
over people and their land. Eventually, many daimyo and the
Tokugawa shogunate itself became heavily indebted to these
merchant moneylenders.
As the power of the merchants increased, the lot of the
peasants worsened. To pay their debts, individual daimyo often
raised taxes on crops. Such actions led to sporadic peasant revolts
during the hundred years before Perry's arrival. This growing tax
burden also put a strain on the delicate balance between the coun­try's
agricultural resources and its large peasant population,
resulting in increased periods of famine and disease. Because they
were without an effective economic policy, the Tokugawa govern­ment
was as ill prepared to help the peasantry as it was to relieve
its own financial distress. Political change was inevitable, and all
that was needed was a push from Commodore Perry.
When Perry arrived in Japan, he was unaware of the polit­ical
and economic complexities plaguing the country. That mat­tered
little, however, because his own objectives were simple:
establish contact with Japan's ruling government and negotiate
a peace treaty. In broad terms, "opening" Japan was important
21
to the United States because of America's expanding political and
commercial role in the PacifIc. More specifIcally, the proposed
treaty allowed American ships, whaling vessels in particular, to
take on supplies at selected Japanese ports. It also arranged for
the protection and safe return of American sailors shipwrecked
on Japanese shores.
Commodore Perry fIrst contacted the shogun by delivering
a letter from the president of the United States. The real message,
however, was conveyed when his warships proudly paraded
through Edo Bay. Perry was saying, in effect, "Negotiate, or else!"
Each of the ships, two of which were coal-burning paddlewheel­ers,
had at least 20 cannon on deck and a crew of 600, including
300 assault marines. Such a show of force made quite an impres­sion
on the Japanese, whose primitive armaments would have
been of little use in a fIght against Perry's modern weaponry .
! .
7Wenty-seven launches fire a salute during Commodore Perry's
expedition to japan, 1854. (From a japanese scroll of the period.)
.. ,
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11;1
Although the shogunate had rebuffed all previous efforts
to make diplomatic contact, Perry's was an offer it could not
22
refuse. Commodore Perry soon left on another mission, but he
promised to return within a year with more warships. He kept
the promise, and on March 31, 1854, a "treaty of peace and amity"
between the United States and Japan was signed, giving Perry
the concessions he wanted. More treaties with the United States
and other Western powers followed .
For the Japanese, Perry's visit highlighted the weakness
of the Tokugawa government. It also began a debate over how
best to meet the foreign challenge. A few young and ambitious
daimyo and samurai felt that Japan should be opened wide to
Western influence. Only by accepting Western technology and
incorporating Western ideas, they argued, could Japan compete
as an equal. Another group, composed mainly of the Satsuma and
Choshu clans, was adamant in denying the power of the West,
in part because they had not viewed Perry's warships. But they
were also descendants of the original tozama, and as such, they
were opposed to any position taken by the shogun.
The official policy of the shogun was a compromise posi­tion.
The government would accommodate the West, but only
when forced to. This kind of reaction, however, was unsatisfactory
to all groups involved, including the majority of Japanese samurai
who wanted strong leadership and positive action. What followed
next was an excellent example of japan's calling up the past to
meet the needs of the present. In essence, Japan and its people
turned to the emperor for help.
Throughout much of Japanese history the emperor had
been more or less a figurehead, allowing others to control the
functioning of the imperial government through a series of
regents. In A.D. 1192 this system was modified when the first
shogun, Yoritomo Minamoto, established himself in power by
setting up a military government separate from the imperial
throne. Although his authority theoretically came from the
emperor, Yoritomds real source of power was in his army. None­theless,
the emperor, who was believed to be a sacred descendant
of the mythical Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, was allowed to continue
as the chief moral authority and nominal head of the country.
The forces of the shogun's office waxed and waned over
the next 400 years until the 17th century, when Ieyasu Tokugawa
once again established the shogun's uncontested power. During
23
all this time, and for two and a half centuries of Tokugawa rule,
the institution of the emperor remained intact and uninterrupted.
Then came Perry's visit and the desire for political change. Fifteen
years later a group of daimyo, led by the Satsuma and Choshu
clans, successfully pressed the shogun to resign and turn over
his power to the emperor. Thus, in 1868, nearly 700 years after
the fIrst shogun took office, the shogunate was officially abolished,
and a new imperial era was begun.
The emperor at this time was Mutsuhito, a boy of 15 who
had succeeded to the throne less than a year before when Emperor
Komei died. Being so young, he was naturally influenced by his
advisers, most of whom believed that foreign influence in Japan
was inevitable. Even the conservative diehards of the Satsuma
and Choshu clans, who initially wanted to restore the emperor
in hopes that he would drive the Westerners out, began to under­stand
the importance of dealing with the West on its own terms.
It is no coincidence, then, that the young emperor chose Meiji
as his official name and as the name of his reign, since in Japanese
Meiji means "Enlightened Rule:'
The transfer of power from the shogun to the emperor
in 1868 was known as the Meiji Restoration. Some call it the Meiji
Revolution because of the far-reaching changes made during this
time. Indeed, for the next two and a half decades, government
leaders worked toward nothing less than the total transformation
of the economic, political and social fabric of the country. New
factories were built, a constitution was written, a form of parlia­mentary
government was begun, and universal conscription was
undertaken. The old system of rigidly defIned social classes was
also abolished. The whole feudal system, in fact, was gradually
dismantled in the fIrst years of the Meiji era.
Surprisingly there was little resistance from the daimyo
to the destruction of feudalism , mainly because most were given
positions of power in the newly formed regional prefectures
where their fIefdoms had once been. There were many samurai,
however, who were unhappy with their treatment at the hands
of the new administration. Some had lost their stipends, while
others simply mourned the death of old ways. In 1877, in a fInal
and futile gesture, a group of these samurai in Satsuma Prefecture
rebelled. The government called out its newly organized army,
24
Emperor Meiji
and after several months of fighting this "Satsuma Rebellion" was
quelled . By all measures, Japanese feudalism was now dead.
The Meiji government pushed ahead with its policy of
modernization, an element of which was to encourage the nation's
youth to study abroad. Before its demise the Tokugawa shogunate
had taken a similar step in 1866 when it issued a few passports
to students. This was significant because it was the first time since
1638 that Japanese had been allowed to leave the country. Few
had actually left, however, when in 1871 Emperor Meiji issued
the following pronouncement to the people of Japan:
My country is now undergoing a complete change from
the old to the new ideas, which I sincerely desire; therefore,
I call upon all the wise and strong minded to appear and
become good guides to the government. During youthtime
it is positively necessary to view foreign countri es, so as to
become enlightened as to the ideas of the world; and boys
as well as girls, who will themselves become men and
women, should be allowed to go abroad, and my country will
benefit by th eir knowledge so acquired.
This message by the emperor not only encouraged young
Japanese to study in foreign lands but made it patriotic to do so.
In the 16 years between 1868 and 1884, more than 15,000 Japa­nese
went abroad, although not all who left during this period
were actually students. Some were merchants, fishermen or
25
simply individuals in search of adventure; still, this fust surge
of emigration was marked by a large number of students.
Very few of these individuals, scarcely 1,300, or an average
of less than 100 a year, came to the United States. The majority
went to Korea, China and Europe. Although the emperor had
encouraged both men and women to go abroad, few women did
so. Of the nearly 700 Japanese students in the United States in
1887, only 13 were female. Traditional expectations that women
remain passive were not easily altered, not even when it was the
wish of the emperor.
Some students who came to the United States were sons
of the elite and were supported in their studies by the govern­ment.
They, along with those who were simply wealthy, attended
prestigious educational institutions in the East, such as Harvard,
Yale and Rutgers. Others with little money worked while attend­ing
school. The most popular nrst occupation of these students
was the appropriately named position of "school boy:' This was
a domestic servant who worked part-time in return for room,
board and a small monthly wage. The arrangement was conve­nient
for all involved. For wealthy homeowners on the West Coast
domestics were in short supply, and for young Japanese the
advantages of working mornings and evenings while going to
school during the day were considerable.
it im
~ ~ A - ~ - • 9 u (CONVERSATION) Vi it I!B I~
111.:; <~ 11'" ib
( I ) iJJ ~ IJ (7) f1r -€i- 0-
r-U 7~~r L~~~- i$~~
(TAlK AB01jT EMPLOYMENT)
1':( ~~ ~-'!7- ,,"~ 7:;;:;'- 't.7"' -{ v -It-'"i:t.{ i'
(B) Is this your house number 1538 ?
1 :1:-7-
eM) Yes.
9\:)- ~- ,,*y~ ~~-~ ~ - 1
(B) Do you want school boy ?
1:r.-~ 111.. ~v %y~ ~'.Yl- ¥'(J,;/ ~"I-­(
M) Yes, come in and sit down there.
-"<""':; .:\.- 7.e-~ "'v!l'J~~.:L
(M) Can you speak English?
1%- :;1, ~¥-,L.. y{ .:f-'r' ..... ;;\~-g {!I~Y"~.:l.
(B) Yes, madam. I can speak English.
,. \) ... ,),1" \).:c-j!:;:r. :1- \):t v t- %. - "i-?
(M) How much wages you 'want a week?
!1v 3("} - %.~F "-7 ;L:,Il'I 71 l'i'J!.<:z. 'J- :1' - -
(D) One dollar nod half and I wish to go
7" 1' 7,}'I .. ,, - 7 >~ A " :r.{" 1v"li 'E-::::.yV
out· at half past eight ill the morning.
ItA. t: {
'fji W .s-I-i\'4ilt t.> 't~ t: 0:1;!i;" " ~ '.
i(i'"(·""·
~~ < ,-
A ~ - ,vm---l t..-an-Q -C r~ I ' " "". .,
Itl'. Ih'-Q-C": ~:I;aHJ1! ~ I' ·
A ... ·:: Ittl
t.>1!t:ltj)!;mli<,,"~" "~ '.
?- r;'P;':'~ U.f,;
1 1Hiii~~q) IJ'11~"t!" i".
~ \"'; 7 '"
hiLt; I! I ' ( ;;ff;1~Yli L I'O)"('''''·.
t/ ' <?l."'-:r).",~" -I!{" ... ·1~ ~· l ... · ~"l tttA.
-i!lI Pij ·- '~'li.Tfiltm-)1:' · 0)"(' ''' 1: L"C4ij,MAu»1f>
1:*1,.~H .
Conversational aid for Japanese "school boy" (d e tail)
26
In 1884 the character of japanese emigration changed
when the Meiji government began allowing "laborers" to leave
the country. This meant that virtually all japanese were now eligi­ble
to emigrate. One reason for the policy change was that it
opened up new opportunities for the long-suffering farmer in
japan. Although the government's modernization program had
improved conditions for most Japanese, many farmers were still
economically pinched. To be sure, beginning with the Meiji
Restoration in 1868, farmers had been encouraged to move to
the large, relatively unpopulated northern island of Hokkaido.
This migration north was sponsored by the government in much
the same manner as the settling of the American West. In 16 years
more than 105,000 Japanese pioneers went to Hokkaido, but by
1884 this movement north was almost at a halt. In the meantime
other farmers had moved to the cities, but the effects of over­population
in these urban areas quickly became another problem
for the government. Clearly, another outlet was needed. The
opening of emigration in 1884 suited that purpose.
Many who left Japan during the early years of emigration
had every intention of returning. They thought they could work
in Hawaii and other places where wages were comparatively high,
save their money and then return home. This was similar to the
traditional practice of dekasegi, where an individual leaves home
to work for a short time to supplement the family's agricultural
income. But leaving one's village for another town or city was
not quite the same as going abroad. Whether money problems
or the enticements of new lands were responsible, many never
returned to Japan. Thus, in 40 years of immigration to Hawaii,
only about half of the workers ever came back.
The flow of laborers to Hawaii was largely in response
to a call for workers by sugar plantation owners. From 1884 to
1899 at least 80,000 Japanese contracted to work in Hawaii's sugar­cane
fields. Because earlier Chinese workers had been cheated
and otherwise maltreated by their Caucasian employers, the Meiji
government had extracted an agreement from Hawaiian officials
which standardized the contracts of Japanese going to the islands.
In return for three years of labor, a Japanese worker could expect
a minimum of $15 a month plus free transportation to and from
Japan. Although such prearranged agreements ended when
27
Hawaii became a u.s. territory in 1900, Japanese laborers con­tinued
to come on their own, largely because wages were twice
what could be earned in Japan. By 1908 almost 80,000 more
Japanese had made the trip.
The immigration to Hawaii was initially much greater than
to the continental United States. One reason was that Hawaii was
much closer to Japan, and, of course, the prearranged contracts
to work in Hawaii made it easier to go there. Also, there was much
anti-Asian feeling in the United States, which may have kept some
Japanese from wanting to travel to this country. For instance, the
Chinese Exclusion Law passed by Congress in 1882 had halted
neady all Chinese immigration into the country. Following that
law's passage, there were also riots and general violence directed
against the Chinese, causing many of them to disperse across the
U.S. or return to China.
By 1890, then, there were barely 2,000 Japanese residing
in the United States, many of whom were students. But beginning
in 1891, immigration increased to more than a thousand per year
for the next ten years. By 1900 more than 24,000 Japanese were
living in the U.S., and by 1910 this number was over 72,000. By
way of comparison, there was a record high of 132,000 Chinese
in the United States in 1882, the year of the Chinese Exclusion
Law. Eight years later, in 1890, their numbers had dropped to
107,000. Ten years after that, in 1900, there were less than 90,000.
By 1910 the Japanese actually outnumbered the Chinese by
10,000, there being fewer than 62,000 Chinese in all of the United
States, or less than half the number of 28 years before.
Ironically, the Chinese Exclusion Law which caused the
dramatic decrease in the Chinese-American population was a
major factor in the increase of the Japanese-American population.
Because jobs which the Chinese might otherwise have taken
needed to be filled, employers on the West Coast welcomed Japa­nese
immigration, even though American workers did not. Still,
the economy of the Pacific Coast area at the turn of the century
was expanding enormously, and there were jobs for almost every­one.
Once the Japanese discovered this, they came in increasing
numbers, not only from Japan but from Hawaii as well.
This flow of job seekers highlights the differences between
Japanese and much of European immigration to the United States.
28
In Japan there was no religious or political persecution as in
Europe, and although economic conditions and population pres­sures
in Japan affected immigration, they were never so severe
that leaving the country was almost a necessity, as was the case
in several European countries. Of course, many Japanese did go
abroad to improve their economic standing, but few left Japan
solely to escape intolerable circumstances. Thus, individuals of
all kinds - merchants, fIshermen, craftsmen and farmers - came
to the United States because of the opportunities awaiting them.
Many Japanese were spurred on to emigrate by talk of great
wealth. Stories of those who had been successful in the United
States were highly publicized in Japan. There was some exaggera­tion,
no doubt, but there was also no denying the testimonials
of men like George Shima, the "Potato King:' His rags-to-riches
story was probably known to every Japanese who ever considered
emigration. At the turn of the century, Shima transformed acres
of marshy delta land near Stockton, California, into fertile potato
fIelds, in the process making a fortune as well as a name for
himself. When he died in 1926 his estate was reportedly worth
$15 million.
This and other Horatio Alger-type stories gave many
Japanese the needed motivation to leave Japan. There were also
numerous pamphlets and books that promoted emigration and
: ~ ~
*=;; fil l, ,,,
GI~tt ...
-~: -/ t ~
",,!It
~ ij
., '
~ ,~ II:
!It •'
II! "
ff '..
j
1
1"
:..­,)
0
.,,4-
,.f-,v·j'
l ........ '
~ i + "
J\ ~
J¥. ~
Il ij
J1 • ;.:,. !" illn 1L ­~
~
1l1>r,
)\
II't
_:1
1 ~;1 ?'
'-I Ii~"
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1i1
Prom Tobei Zasshi (Magazine for
the American Bound). 1902
29
acted as guides to the New World. They had titles like Secrets
on Going to America; Come, Japanese!; Labor Handbook for America
and A Guide to Success Abroad. In the early 1900's several monthly
magazines, including Tobei Zasshi (Magazine for the American
Bound), were published to encourage and aid emigration. Further
impetus came when the Japanese began writing letters home,
encouraging friends and family to join them.
The means for getting to America were occasionally lack­ing,
even if the desire was not. In such cases, Japanese emigration
companies stepped in to help. The first emigration company was
established in 1894; by 1900 there were 11 such companies. These
organizations made travel arrangements for emigrants, advanced
them money for expenses and even promised jobs upon their
arrival. Although the system was abused on occasion by those
obviously more concerned with making money than with helping
emigrants, the services provided by these companies nonetheless
contributed to increased emigration from Japan in the early 1900's.
Indeed, the first years of the 20th century saw the peak
of Japanese immigration to the United States. In 1907 and 1908
nearly 10,000 Japanese a year arrived on the West Coast. But in
1909 barely 2,500 Japanese came, and only 1,600 of them were
classified as "immigrants:' And, in the years following, Japanese
immigration remained well below the 1907-1908 level. What had
happened to cause such a drastic decline? The answer can be
found in the actions of anti-Japanese groups, especially those
which were active in California.
As the Japanese population in the U.S. increased, numer­ous
grass roots organizations, such as the "Japanese and Korean
Exclusion League;' arose. These groups, using tactics similar to
those of the Chinese exclusion movement 20 years before, con­ducted
meetings and rallies to spread their doctrine of race hatred.
Boycotts against Japanese businesses and occasional violence
against Japanese individuals resulted.
The anti-Japanese movement was supported by local
politicians and editors, no doubt because it got votes and sold
newspapers. American labor on the West Coast also supported
the movement. They were afraid of competition from Japanese
immigrants, who were willing to work for lower wages. Although
initially unsuccessful at convincing the rest of the nation that a
30
law excluding further Japanese immigration was needed, these
groups continued to agitate against Japanese already in the United
States. In 1906, just a few months after the great San Francisco
earthquake and fire, anti-Japanese forces finally were able to let
loose with some earthshaking action of their own, sending shock
waves to both Washington and Tokyo.
On October 11, 1906, the San Francisco Board of Educa­tion
passed a resolution stating that the 93 Japanese children of
grammar school age in the city were required to attend the school
set aside for Chinese children. Unlike the Chinese, however, the
Japanese were scattered throughout the city, making it impossible
for some to switch schools. Also, the Japanese in America were
protected by their home government. This was believed to be
necessary since Japanese born outside the United States remained
Japanese citizens because of the U.S. law passed in 1790 denying
everyone but "free whites" American citizenship. When the San
Francisco Board of Education took its action, then, a furor arose
in Japan. National leaders in America were surprised by this
strong reaction to what was thought to be a minor issue. But when
officials in Washington moved to force the local authorities in San
Francisco to rescind their order, they found that there were strong
feelings in California as well, and that the school issue was just
the tip of the iceberg. What many Californians really wanted was
a halt, or at least a decrease, in Japanese immigration.
Both Washington and Tokyo wished to avoid open con­frontation
over the school board's actions. Yet it would be difficult
for any of the parties involved to back down, since public opinion
on both sides of the Pacific was adamant. Following diplomatic
negotiations, however, a compromise solution was reached. For
its part, Japan agreed to stop issuing passports to "laborers" trav­eling
to the United States. Japanese who were not considered
laborers were exempt. In return, the Japanese children in San
Francisco were allowed to attend their normal schools. This 1908
understanding became known as the "Gentlemen's Agreement;'
and it silenced, at least temporarily, the anti-Japanese voices on
the West Coast.
Over the next decade and a half, Japanese students, busi­nessmen
and other "nonlaborers" continued to come to the U.S.,
as did the families of those already in the country. But as immi-
31
fir
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Mrs. Mota Kobayashi's passport, issued in 1913
gration once again increased, so did popular sentiment for shutting
off all immigration from Japan, During this period various state
legislatures passed laws discriminating against Asians in areas
such as land leasing and ownership, But the most drastic action
came from the United States Congress, With its passage of the
Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 - unofficially known among Japanese
as the Japanese Exclusion Act - all Japanese immigration to the
United States came to a halt, It would not resume again until well
after World War II.
Although the 1924 federal law barred further immigration
of Japanese, more than 100,000 had already made the United
States their home, This number is small compared with European
immigration, yet at that time there were more Japanese in the
country than any other Asian group. The vast majority of these
Japanese lived on the West Coast, although there were minor con­centrations
in other states, most notably in Utah, Colorado, Idaho
and New York. But there were Japanese scattered throughout the
rest of the country as well. One state which became a focal point
for many was Texas,
The earliest Japanese Texans were recorded by the 1890
census. There were only three in the whole state, one each in
32
Cameron, Dallas and Tarrant counties. The Dallas County man
was Mr. Kinta Tsukahara, a farmer who had come to the U.S.
in 1885, just a year after general emigration was allowed by the
Meiji government. He was joined in 1900 by his brother, Kinya,
who earned his medical degree at Baylor University and then
practiced in Dallas. This pattern, where an immigrant was fol­lowed
by family members, was common, reflecting the close-knit
nature of the Japanese family as well as the difficulty of raising
money for travel expenses for more than one person at a time.
Generally, only if a family pooled its resources could enough
money be raised to send an individual abroad. That person then
had the responsibility of helping others in the family.
As in all immigration the promise of opportunity abroad
was not always fulfilled. Many Japanese who came to Texas stayed
a short while, then moved on. This was perhaps the case with
a bamboo craftsman named Thuchiya. One of the earliest Japanese
in Texas, Mr. Tsuchiya lived in El Paso about 1885. Beyond that,
little is known except that there was no mention of Japanese living
in El Paso in the 1890 census. Whether Mr. Tsuchiya moved in
the interim or was overlooked by census takers is unknown.
Much more is known about a man named "Tom Brown"
Okasaki. His real name was Tsunekichi Okasaki, but because of
the difficulty in pronouncing his first name, he was more com­monly
called Tom Brown. It was not unusual in those days for
Japanese to arbitrarily choose an English first name for use with
American friends. It was preferable, of course, to find a name
that sounded like one's Japanese name. Thus, Tomoyuki easily
became Tom, and Jiroo became Jerry. Also, a name like Kiyoaki
might be shortened to Kay, but it would certainly take much
imagination to derive Tom Brown from Thunekichi.
Whatever the story behind his name, Tom Brown Okasaki
became a successful restaurateur in Houston around the turn of
the century. He arrived in the United States in the 1890's from
his home prefecture of Okayama. He then opened an establish­ment
named the Japanese Restaurant, located at 1111 Congress
Avenue in downtown Houston. Despite its name, Okasaki's Japa­nese
Restaurant served mainly American food. The restaurant
enjoyed considerable success, possibly because of its reasonable
prices-from 10 to 25 cents for a full dinner.
33
Business prospered for Tom Brown, and by 1911 he
opened the Japanese Art Store at 715 Main, while across the street
Ibm Brown Okasaki's Japanese Art Store in Houston, c. 1911
and down the block, he was a partner in the Japan Art and Tea
Company. Two men, Junzo Fujino and Yoshimatsu Konishi, were
listed with Tom Brown in connection with this company as "deal­ers
in Japanese art goods and tea:' Misfortune intervened, though,
when one of Tom Browns art stores burned down after a building
next door caught fire. Undaunted, Okasaki persevered and soon
opened two more dining establishments in addition to the already
popular Japanese Restaurant. One was the Eagle Cafe, described
in the city directory as a "chop suey parlor:'
During this period of the early 1900's, Tom Brown was
active in Houston's Japanese community. From 1900 to 1910 the
number of Japanese in 1exas had grown from 13 to 340, with quite
a few living in or around Houston and Harris County. Okasaki's
restaurant served as a gathering place for many of these Japanese,
especially for traditional celebrations such as New Year's Day and
34
the Emperor's Birthday. As a leader in the Japanese community,
Tom Brown was also obliged to help fellow immigrants who were
in need. Thus, he often employed Japanese newcomers to the area
as waiters, dishwashers and cooks in his restaurants.
About 1907 Tom Brown even dabbled in rice farming at
two locations outside Houston. He persuaded a friend, Kunie­mon
Sando, who was also from Okayama Prefecture, to leave
Japan to manage one of his Texas rice farms. At the age of 23
Sando was a former soldier, who had served in Manchuria during
the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). After this war, which Japan
won, many soldiers returned to Japan to fmd few jobs available.
Thus, when Sando was given a chance to come to Texas, he took
it. But Okasaki's rice venture was a complete failure, with unusu­ally
wet weather flooding the fields and ruining the crops. After
this setback Sando helped Tom Brown in his restaurant business
and later opened his own cafe.
Another man who worked for Tom Brown was Otsukichi
Matsumoto, who, in 1898 at the age of 18, left his home village
of Yanai to work in the sugar fields of Hawaii. Like so many other
Japanese, he later moved to San Francisco, where he worked as
~ ~, . .>=.. ...... J.. Otsukichi Matsumoto
35
a waiter and then as a valet for an American coloneL By saving
his money he was able to open a restaurant with two friends from
Yanai. But several years later the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
and fire destroyed their business. When Tom Brown heard of
Matsumotds plight, he invited him to Houston to help him with
his own restaurant business.
Matsumoto worked for Tom Brown Okasaki until after
World War I, at which time Tom Brown returned to Japan. Mat­sumoto
and two other employees took over the chain of restau­rants.
Because business had been good during the war, Tom
Brown was able to buy a small hotel in Japan where he lived out
the rest of his life. Whether he had always planned on returning
to his homeland is not clear, but certainly many Japanese in the
United States had that very dream.
Other Japanese came to Texas simply as visitors. One such
man, geographer and writer Professor Shigetaka (Juko) Shiga,
traveled to San Antonio in November 1914 to pay tribute to the
heroes of the Alamo. Dr. Shiga had discovered in the Alamo
defenders the same qualities of selfless courage and loyalty unto
death that he so admired in the 16th century heroes of the Battle
"Courage is not the
monopoly of either the West ~
or the East. You need not
wonder, then, if I drink a ~<
toast to your memory!" ~ .
{From Shiga's poem -
inscribed on the monument. J
36
of Nagashino in his home province. Each group fought bravely
against overwhelming odds. Like James Bonham, Nagashino
warrior Suneemon Torii risked his life to get help, then returned
to die with his comrades.
So moved was Shiga by these parallels that he decided
to erect similar stone markers in both America and Japan to honor
the heroes. He composed a poem recalling their valor and had
it engraved on granite slabs found near the grave of Torii, japan's
Bonham. During his visit to the Alamo in 1914, Dr. Shiga pre­sented
one stone monument to the Daughters of the Republic
of Texas. It still stands in the Alamo convent courtyard. He placed
the second marker in his home town of Okazaki near Nagashino.
At the dedication ceremony of the monument at the
Alamo, Shiga received several gifts. Among these were acorns
from the Alamo live oak trees which he was asked to plant at
the Nagashino battle site. Dr. Shiga accepted with these words:
"1 shall tell the people of Japan these acorns came from the citizens
of San Antonio and the great state of Texas, and I shall strive to
make my people better understand the friendliness, generosity
and hospitality of the inhabitants of far-off America:'
The story of the Japanese monument and its twin in
Okazaki gradually faded from public memory, but since the nrst
San Antonio-Japan Week in 1984 Dr. Noritsugu Mukai of Boston
and Dr. Margit Nagy, CDP, of the Japan America Society of San
Antonio have been working with Dr. Shiga's family and the
Daughters of the Republic of Texas to revive interest in the monu­ment.
This joint effort resulted in the donation of a portrait of
Dr. Shiga by his son to the DRT. The Junior Ambassadors Friend­ship
Mission from Musashino City presented the portrait during
a rededication of friendship ceremony in August 1986. That event
marked the beginning of a cooperative project between Texans
and Japanese to make the monument better known.
Professor Shiga was certainly one of the nrst Japanese
"tourists" to visit the Alamo. But, as early as 1885, Richard B.
Hubbard, governor of Texas from December 1876 to January 1879,
was no doubt the nrst Texan to tour the Japanese countryside,
visiting some of japan's more important temples and shrines.
Governor Hubbard obtained his nrst-hand knowledge of Japan
during a nve-year term from 1885 to 1890 as U.S. Minister Pleni-
37
potentiary to Japan. Several of Hubbard's grandchildren were born
in Japan; thus, when the family moved back to Tyler in 1890,
Hubbard's grandchildren nearly doubled the total of three Japa­nese-
born individuals reported living in Texas by the 1890 census.
38
three
Tte first real impact of Japanese immigration in Texas was
in rice farming. In 1902 there were no Japanese farms in
Texas, but within six years there were at least 30 separate
attempts by Japanese to grow rice in scattered areas of the state.
In 1908 the value of the rice crop grown by Japanese Texans was
nearly $250,000. Of the 312 Japanese living in Texas in 1910, prob­ably
80 percent or more were rice farmers. Most were young men
in their 20's and 30's who came straight from Japan specifically
to farm rice. What brought these people to Texas, and how did
they fare once they arrived?
In the early 1900's the rice industry in Texas was still in
its infancy. Rice cultivation first occurred in the state in the middle
of the 19th century. Large-scale irrigated production, however,
did not occur until the 1890's, when 8,500 acres of rice were
planted near Beaumont. Within a few years numerous rice farms
had spread to Houston and beyond.
Still, Texas rice production was well behind that of Loui­siana,
even though the potential in Texas was greater. The
Japanese consul general in New York, Sadatsuchi Uchida, realized
39
Sadatsuchi Uchida, consul
general in New York who
encouraged Japanese rice
farming in Texas
this as he traveled through Louisiana and southeastern Texas in
1902 on a fact-flllding tour of the American South. He foresaw
a great future for rice growing in Texas. During his visit Consul
Uchida was asked to speak at a meeting in Beaumont of the fledg­ling
Rice Growers' Association of America. He talked about Japa­nese
methods of rice cultivation and the possibility of Japanese
farmers immigrating to the area. The latter idea was well received,
and a resolution was passed at the meeting offering an open invi­tation
to Japanese to come.
When Uchida later visited Houston he was further encour­aged
by representatives from the Houston Chamber of Com­merce,
the Texas governor's office and the Southern Pacinc Rail­road.
They wanted to let the consul general know that Japanese
were quite welcome in Texas. Because there were scarcely three
million people in the state, migration meant development and
prosperity. After his trip to Texas, then, Consul Uchida filed a
glowing report describing Texas land and its potential to Japan's
Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce.
At the turn of the century, rice farming was an impor­tant
and respected occupation in Japan. Yet a dense population
and limited space forced land prices so high that many tenant
farmers knew they could never own land. Those who did have
40
land generally owned tiny frelds scattered in different places, a
real hindrance to large-scale agriculture. Although Japan is rough­ly
the size of California, less than 16 percent of its land can be
used for farming. The rest is mainly mountainous and too steep
to till. This means that in Japan in 1903 there were 45,000,000
people subsisting on cultivated land one-third the size of Illinois.
In 1904 more than 80 percent of the agricultural families in Japan
worked land which averaged less than four acres; more than half
of them worked land which averaged less than two acres in size.
Thus, news that there was vast prairie land suitable for
rice farming in southeast Texas spread fast. Several Tokyo news­papers
printed parts of Uchida's report, which became a popular
topic for discussion. For the next six or seven years until the
Gentlemen's Agreement, interest among the Japanese was kept
high by a succession of books, pamphlets and magazine articles,
the latter often containing "open letters" to the public from Japa­nese
in Texas. Consul General Uchida himself wrote several
magazine articles encouraging Japanese to settle in Texas.
Working Texas rice fzelds
The reaction from Japan was immediate, if somewhat
inauspicious. In 1903, the year following Uchida's visit, two rice-
41
farming ventures were attempted in Texas. Both failed. In the
vicinity of Port Lavaca, Junzo Fujino and four colleagues leased
90 acres near the Gulf and began farming. Unfortunately, a dam
broke and allowed salt water into the fields, ruining the crop.
Despite his disappointment, Fujino remained in Texas, working
on various Japanese-owned farms. He was the same Junzo Fujino
who later became a partner of Houston entrepreneur Tom Brown
Okasaki in the Japan Art and Tea Company. To the west, on the
Mexican border in Del Rio, two more Japanese, Hosho and Kana­me
Inoue, leased some land to farm rice in 1903. They hired local
help to work the fields but were no more successful than Fujino
and his group.
Later that year many more Japanese arrived in Texas to
start rice projects. One of the most famous of this group was Seito
Saibara, a man who envisioned a Texas rice colony of 1,500
Japanese or more. How Saibara came to dream such a dream is
the story of a man driven by the times in which he lived and
by his own belief in what he had to do.
Seito Saibara was born in 1861 in the small village of
Izuma on Shikoku, one of the four main islands which compose
Japan. In the United States the American Civil War was just
beginning. In Japan there was less violent turmoil, characteristic
of the period following Admiral Perry's arrival in 1853. In 1868,
when Saibara was only seven years old, the Meiji Restoration
occurred, setting a new course for the country.
One of the strongest allies of the powerful Satsuma and
Choshu clans, which backed the Meiji Restoration, was the Tosa
clan to which Seito Saibara belonged. Many Tosa members were
rewarded for their support of the restoration with important
political positions in the new government. Others were given
preferential treatment in their business enterprises. One Tosa
member founded the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Company, which
later became famous as the manufacturer of the Zero, the Japa­nese
fighter plane widely used during World War II.
Harmony within the government, however, did not last
long. One Tosa official in particular felt that his views were being
ignored by the more conservative Choshu and Satsuma statesmen.
This man was Taisuke Itagaki. In 1873 he and his followers
resigned from the government and formed a political group to
42
spread their liberal ideas and ideals. They called themselves
Risshisha, or the Society of Free Thinkers. As its name implies,
Risshisha represented a diverse, if odd, mixture of thinking. Its
membership supported the varied causes of democratic reform,
aggressive nationalism and the need for a strong emperor. Ris­shisha's
members included democratic idealists, discontented
samurai and disappointed office seekers. And as in any social
reform movement, there were also those in the group willing to
use force to draw attention to their views.
It was this environment that 16-year-old Seito Saibara
entered when he traveled to Kochi, the old capital of the Tosa
clan and the new capital of Kochi Prefecture, to attend the Ris­shisha
English School established by the society. There he not
only studied English, but was briefly exposed to the works of
foreign intellectuals such as Spencer, Mill, Rousseau, Bentham
and Smith. But before his education could proceed very far, the
revolt of ex-samurai known as the Satsuma Rebellion broke out
.on Kyushu, another of the four main Japanese islands. Sympathy
for this rebellion among Risshisha members ran high, causing
them to organize a similar rebellion. The plan, however, was
discovered, and numerous men, including Seito Saibara, were
arrested. Fortunately for Saibara, he was released a short time
later with several others because of their youth.
Seito Saibara
43
This incident acted as Saibara's political baptism of fire.
By the time he was 19, Seito was making speeches against the
Meiji government. Although the Meiji Restoration had led to vast
reforms throughout Japan, Seito Saibara and his friends stressed
the need for even more reform. They also felt that Japan had much
to learn from the West, and they thus advocated increased contact
with Western nations.
Although Saibara was involved in politics, he was also
working toward his law degree. After the aborted rebellion plot,
he followed Itagaki to Tokyo and entered Shigematsu Law School.
Later he married Motoko Yamawaki from his home prefecture
of Kochi, and in 1884 she bore him a son, Kiyoaki. In 1886 Seito
was one of only 11 people in Japan who were admitted to the
bar. He and his family then returned to the town of Kochi where
he wanted to open a law practice.
Family life, however, did not keep Seito Saibara out of con­troversy.
Shortly after he arrived in Kochi, he became embroiled
in an alleged plot to assassinate the prefecture's conservative
governor, who was an appointee of the Meiji government. As a
result, Saibara was again arrested. During the next year he took
his case to the Kochi Prefectural Court, the Osaka Court of Appeal,
the Hiroshima Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Tokyo.
The charges against him were finally dropped for lack of evidence.
When he returned to Kochi following the appeal process, Saibara
was greeted as a political martyr. The rigors of the various trials
and the frequent traveling had affected Saibara's health, but with
rest he was soon well and active.
In the several years following this episode, Seito Saibara
emerged as a local leader. His old friend Itagaki was also busy,
having formed the Japanese Liberal Party in anticipation of the
first parliamentary elections in Japan, to be held in 1890. Saibara
campaigned for the four Liberal Party candidates from Kochi, all
of whom were elected to the new parliament. With those elections
Japan officially became a constitutional monarchy.
A year later, in 1891, Saibara and his family moved to
Japan's second largest city, Osaka, where Seito practiced law at
Osaka District Court. He continued his political activities by
making speeches and representing his home prefecture at Liberal
44
Party gatherings. In 1898, at the age of 37, Saibara ran for and
was elected to the Japanese House of Representatives.
Seito Saibara's interests, though, were not limited to law
and politics. Like a few others in Japan, he was intrigued by the
religious beliefs of the West. As is the case today, very few
Japanese were Christians; most were Buddhists, Shintoists or
both. Saibara nonetheless decided to join the Tamon Congrega­tional
Church of Kobe. His conversion to Christianity set in motion
a chain of events which ultimately led him to Texas.
In July of 1899, shortly after joining the Tamon Congrega­tional
Church of Kobe, Saibara was asked to serve as the fourth
president of Kyotds Doshisha University, a Christian college built
with money raised by the Congregational Church in the United
States. While he was president, Saibara continued to serve in the
parliament, where he became known as a staunch defender of
the rights of Japanese Christians and Christian churches in Japan.
Several years later, in 1902 just before his frrst term in the House
of Representatives was to expire, Seito Saibara made a momentous
decision. He would leave Japan for Connecticut and study at the
Hartford Theological Seminary. Saibara's motives for the move
are not entirely clear. Why would he leave the country just when
his political career and influence were on the rise? He was certain
to be reelected to the Japanese Parliament in the next elections.
One possibility is that he simply may have been weary of the
life of a politician. Or perhaps because of his new Christian faith,
he wanted to remove himself from the compromises and corrup­tions
of political life. Some say he decided to study theology
because he had been criticized as president of Doshisha Univer­sity
for his lack of formal religious training. For whatever reason,
Saibara left Japan on April 7, 1902.
Seito Saibara's journey was actually a combination of offi­cial
and private business, since he was one of two delegates
representing the Japanese House of Representatives at the corona­tion
of King Edward VII in London, England. As an official repre­sentative,
Saibara was entitled to travel on the Japanese battleship
Takasago. Many friends and relatives, including his wife, Taiko,
whom he had married after his frrst wife's death, and his son,
Kiyoaki, were at the dock to see Saibara off on his journey.
45
Consul General
Sadatsuchi Uchida
After his brief visit to England, Saibara arrived on the East
Coast of the United States and began his theological studies at
Hartford, where he remained for a year. During this time he met
and befriended Consul General Uchida. Their conversations no
doubt touched upon the possibility of establishing rice colonies
in Texas. As an entry in his journal reveals, Saibara was seriously
considering making the United States his permanent home:
June 7, 1903 - All day long my mind was occupied by the
thought of whether I should start the enterprise of the immi­gration
of Japanese nationalities or not in North America. I
wrote a letter of inquiry to Mr. Tamaki [then in New York
City] in order to obtain the report of the investigation of
Consul Uchida.
Within the month Saibara made his decision. He would
remain in the United States as an immigrant. But because it took
three weeks for a letter to reach Japan and three weeks for a reply,
Saibara had to wait to discover how his wife and son felt about
joining him in America. While he waited Saibara weighed the
advantages of settling in one part of the United States as opposed
to another. As an exuberant entry in his journal indicates, he had
narrowed the possibilities down to two states:
June 20, 1903 - Sent a detailed letter to Mr. Kiyoka Aki, Kochi
Prefecture, concerning my friends' future conduct in life, the
agriculture of the United States in general, and actual condi­tions
in the two states of Texas and California. Spent three
to four days in thinking about and writing plans for this letter.
46
Probably this was the greatest letter I've ever written . ..
After mailing it my feeling of satisfaction was immense.
Saibara's ultimate decision to move to Texas rather than to
California reflected his pioneering spirit. Since most Japanese
immigrants were settling on the West Coast, the idea of estab­lishing
a Japanese colony in Texas was perhaps a little more
exciting or daring to him. Also important to Saibara was the
influence of Consul General Uchida, whose enthusiasm for Texas
was linked to Japan's need for rice. At that time much of japan's
rice was being imported from Korea and Taiwan. With a growing
population Japan was certain to need even more rice in the future,
and a prosperous colony in Texas could possibly be one source
of supply.
In order to have a colony at all, however, there fIrst had
to be "colonists;' Japanese willing to leave Japan for the promise
of something better in the United States. Saibara knew it might
be hard to convince people to join him, so in the early summer
months of 1903, he put great effort into writing letters to relatives
and friends, urging them all to come. For those who could not
purchase land immediately-the case with a majority of those
who eventually came-Saibara promised work at a salary of $250
per year plus board. Any wife accompanying her husband was
offered $90 a year.
July passed, and Saibara still had received no reply from
his wife concerning the Texas venture. When the letter finally
came a happy Saibara wrote in his journal:
August 2, 1903 - From Taiko the answer that she has decided
to come to the United States arrived. I was much relieved
and felt I had attained more courage. Kiyoaki said that if he
passed the school entrance exams, he would like to remain
in Japan.
Seito Saibara had convinced his wife, but his son, Kiyoaki,
who was 18 and a recent graduate from high school, had other
plans. Because he very much wanted to continue his education,
Kiyoaki had already taken rigorous competitive examinations for
entrance into Daishichi Gakko (the Seventh Higher School). The
results had not been posted yet, but it made no real difference.
The day after receiving the letter from his wife and son, Seito
exercised his authority as a father and wrote back saying unequiv-
47
ocally that both Taiko and Kiyoaki should begin preparations for
the trip to Texas.
Seito himself spent the next ten days preparing to leave
Hartford. His journal indicates he was obviously forewarned
about mosquitoes and August weather in Houston:
... Bought a summer suit for $5.50 and a straw hat for $1.48 .
. . . Bought a mosquito net [for sleeping] for $0.45.
Saibara also spent time procuring letters of introduction, including
one from the president of Hartford Seminary. Finally on August
12th he bade farewell to his friends in Hartford and traveled to
New York.
After a week of sightseeing and visiting with Consul
General Uchida and others in New York, Saibara set sail for Texas
orr August 19, 1903, on the steamship Proteus. Four days later
the ship rounded the tip of Florida, and on the morning of the
sixth day at three dclock, Saibara was awake to see the mouth
of the Mississippi River come into view. While traveling up the
river, he noted what seemed like endless fields of rice and sweet
potatoes. At eleven that morning the Proteus docked at the port
of New Orleans.
Saibara's journey continued that evening when he boarded
a sleeping car at the railway station. At six the following morning
Saibara awoke and was met by his first views of Texas scenery.
He was pleased to see fields full of crops.
Harvesttime on the coastal prairie
48
At 10 a.m. the train pulled into the Houston station, where
Saibara was met by Hosho and Kaname Inoue, the two Japanese
whose Del Rio rice venture had failed earlier that year. They were
in town to raise money to finance another attempt. With them
was Oswald Wilson, a gentleman who would serve as Saibara's
initial guide in Houston. Before the day was over, Wilson had
introduced Saibara to numerous bank presidents, the postmaster,
the editors and staffs of newspapers, and the officers of local
business organizations.
The following day Saibara was introduced to TJ Ander­son,
colonization agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad, which
owned land for sale in the area. The railroad company was
especially interested in large colonizing efforts such as Saibara's,
since they would inevitably bring more business for the company.
To speed Saibara's search for a suitable farm site, Anderson pro­vided
him with a complimentary pass for free rail service. With
the help of this pass, over the next month and a half Saibara
crisscrossed the southeastern gulf coastal area of Texas from Port
Lavaca in the south to Port Arthur in the east. He looked at land
near the communities of Wharton, El Campo, Ganado, Palacios
and Eagle Lake. Closer to Houston he inspected sites in Deer Park,
La Porte, Seabrook, League City, Webster and Barker.
In mid-September Consul General Uchida visited from
New York. Saibara showed him the more promising pieces of land,
including one tract of untilled prairie near Webster, a small town
halfway between Houston and Galveston. Its location on a railway
line was ideal, so Saibara entered into negotiations with the owner
to buy the land.
After two weeks a deal was struck for 304 acres at a price
of $5,750. Saibara had wired his family earlier for $2,000 to make
a down payment of almost $1,500 cash for the property, which
included the use of a house until he could build his own. The
balance of the payment for the land was due in six years. In these
and other financial arrangements, Saibara used a combination
of money from his family, from backers in Japan and from sup­porters
in the Houston community.
Less than three weeks before purchasing this land, Saibara
was joined in Houston by two men from Japan-Rihei and
Toraichi Onishi. Rihei, a journalist for the fiji Shimpo, a Tokyo
49
Rihei Onishi Toraichi Onishi
daily newspaper, had read Consul General Uchida's report on
Texas rice farming. He convinced his wealthy wine-merchant
cousin, Toraichi, to travel to Houston with him to investigate the
situation. They liked what they found, so they bought about 300
acres of land near Saibara's new place. Although it cost $1,700
more than Saibara's land, the Onishi property included a barn
and a house, and 200 acres of the land was already cleared. Still
another man with capital to invest was Shotaro Nishimura, a tea
merchant from Yokohama. He too purchased about 300 acres of
land near Webster.
Together Nishimura, Saibara and the Onishis formed the
nucleus of what all four hoped would become a large Japanese
colony of rice farmers. Indeed, at the time the future looked
extremely bright. There was adequate capital and good, flat
farmland, as well as able-bodied workers who would soon be on
their way from Japan. Saibara's dream of a colony of 1,500 Japa­nese
in the Houston area seemed well within reach.
On October 9th Rihei Onishi left Houston to guide a small
group of immigrants from Japan to Texas. Meanwhile his cousin,
Toraichi, Saibara and several Japanese who had since arrived in
Texas began work on the three Japanese-owned farms. Land was
surveyed and fences put up. Saibara arranged for the construction
of his house, and to provide for the irrigation of crops he went
50
Seito Saibara 's house near Webster
to the considerable expense of digging a 600-foot well. Saibara
also planted a garden using seeds others had brought from Japan.
Included were green vegetable seeds for shungiku, mana, hojona
and taina, all of which are used in Japanese cooking. He also
sowed varieties of daikon (horseradish), kabu (turnips) and negi
(a kind of leek) . When farm equipment arrived plowing began,
and slowly the farms took shape.
At the end of the year, as was the custom in Japan, there
was much gift giving among the Japanese. Saibara's journal, for
Saibara's water well
51
example, recorded a visit by Tom Brown Okasaki, who brought
with him a large amount of beef from his restaurant as a present.
Another Japanese custom was that of paying off one's debts by
year's end. Thus Saibara's December 31st journal entry reads, "Paid
[Toraichi] Onishi all past-due money accounts:' On the following
day, the nrst day of the 37th year of the reign of Emperor Meiji
(1904), Saibara wrote, "It was peaceful. Nothing happened:'
Halfway across the world at the port of Yokohama in
Japan, life was far from uneventful. Rihei Onishi and a group
of 15 colonists were boarding the appropriately named Japanese
steamship, America Maru. (The word Maru follows the name of
most Japanese ships but has no translatable meaning.)
Just as New Year's Day symbolizes an end to an old year
and the beginning of a new one, these emigrants were saying
good-bye to an old life in Japan while looking ahead to an uncer­tain
new one in the United States. Reasons for taking this step
varied greatly, but at least one young 18-year-old, Kiyoaki Saibara,
had his doubts about the whole matter. Kiyoaki had wanted to
study engineering in Japan and later launch a career in ship­building.
He had even passed his entrance exams, but his father
had already ordered him to come to Texas with his mother. Being
a good son, he obeyed, even though he later recalled that he "did
not think very much of the idea:' Thus on a cold but sunny New
Year's Day as the America Maru steamed eastward, Kiyoaki
Saibara stood on the ship's windswept deck and watched the last
outlines of Japan slowly disappear behind the horizon.
The trip across the Pacinc took more than two weeks. In
San Francisco, where the ship docked, the group was met by Seito
Saibara, who was surely anxious to see his family after a separa­tion
of nearly two years. Included among the 16 travelers were
Seito's wife and some of their friends and relatives. Tadao Yasui
and his wife were two such friends. Tadao was a technical expert
from an agricultural experiment station on the northern Japanese
island of Hokkaido. At this station he and another colleague, who
was already in Texas, had experimented in large-scale rice grow­ing.
Their expertise would be highly valued in the coming months.
In addition to Saibara's friends and relatives, Rihei Onishi had
brought his own wife, Hisa Nakahata, and their daughter, May,
as well as four workers to help on his farm .
52
First picture taken in the Us. of the Onishis and friends, 1904
Front row, right to left: Toraichi, Rihei with May on his lap,
Rihei's wife. Hisa Nakahata; back, right: Eijiro Onishi Kondo
After a few days of rest in San Francisco, the party boarded
a train for Texas. Four days later on January 24th they arrived
in Webster. Because Seito Saibara's journal ends here, there are
no accurate accounts of the colonists' impressions of their new
home. But since all were used to the lush vegetation and moun­tainous
countryside of Japan, there must have been a moment
of shock as they viewed the miles of flat prairie for the nrst time.
The monotony of the landscape, however, was also its best
feature, at least for farming. The lack of trees and rocks meant
the flat ground could be cleared quickly; using a gangplow and
four mules, an individual could easily cultivate four acres a day.
So even though there were probably no more than 30 adults to
work the three farms owned by Saibara, Onishi and Nishimura,
the colony prospered the nrst year.
Shinriki, or God Power rice, was planted and grown by
the Japanese colonists. Brought from Japan by Rihei Onishi, this
short-grained rice was chosen because of its hearty nature. In
the rich Texas soil it also proved quite proline. At harvest time
Saibara's crop yielded from two to three times the amount of rice
53
Saibara rice farm near Webster, c. 1904; Kiyoaki Saibara is fourth from left.
per acre than was normal for other Texas farms, which grew the
more common long-grained variety of Honduras rice. The presi­dent
of the Standard Milling Company of Houston, which bought
Saibara's rice, was so pleased with its quality that he sold it as
seed rice to other farmers.
In 1904 there were also other attempts to farm rice by
Japanese in Texas. Most were individual efforts or partnerships
on smaller-sized farms, although some were actually larger than
the Saibara, Onishi or Nishimura farms taken alone. None at the
time, however, approached the size of these three farms together.
One of the smaller farms was owned by 20-year-old Junzo Hashi­moto
of Osaka. Hashimoto was Consul General Uchida's brother­in-
law and had been persuaded by him to buy 160 acres of land
near Garwood, a town west of Houston in Colorado County.
Hashimoto hired local help, and, like Saibara, he recorded fan­tastic
yields the first year. In 1908 Hashimoto moved closer to
the coast near Bay City in Matagorda County, where he leased
500 acres of land with two Japanese partners. The three hired
four other Japanese to help run the farm.
While the initial spark for Japanese immigration to Texas
came from Consul General Uchida's 1902 report, other publica­tions
soon lent fuel to the fire. In 1903 Daijiro Yoshimura, author
of at least three self-help books for Japanese wanting to move
54
to the United States, wrote another book detailing the state of
rice culture in Texas. As if convinced by his own words, Yoshi­mura
and a friend, Matsutaro Asai, formed an organization and
traveled to Texas in the spring of 1904. Their organization, known
as the Kaigai Kigyo Doshi Kai, or the Society of the Friends of
Overseas Enterprises, included 11 other men from Japan. The
group settled on land near League City, which is very close to
Webster. The colony failed after only a year, reportedly because
of dissension among members. Yoshimura nonetheless had
enough nrsthand information to return to Japan and write a sequel
to his nrst book on Texas rice farming.
Another Japanese writer who came to Texas in 1904 was
Sen Katayama. In 1896, after spending 12 years in the United
States as a student and worker, Katayama returned to Japan. There
he wrote and lectured extensively, encouraging his fellow Japa­nese
to emigrate to the U.S. He was also involved in the budding
Japanese socialist and labor movement, and has since been
referred to as the "Father of Asian Communism:'
Beginning in 1901 Katayama wrote a series of three short
guides for students and others wishing to live in the United States.
In 1902 he organized the Tobei Kyokai, or the America Bound
Association, which provided information and assistance for poten­tial
emigrants. Finally in 1904, after his interest was aroused by
reports coming from Japanese farmers in Texas, Sen Katayama
decided to see for himself what Texas was really like.
He arrived in Houston on February 14, 1904. He liked the
area and decided to stay. After some searching he bought 160
acres near the farm of Junzo Hashimoto outside Garwood. Kata­yama's
money for this purchase came from a longtime friend and
benefactor in Japan, Seikichi Iwasaki, a relative of Katayama's
recently deceased wife. He had encouraged Katayama to travel
to Texas and had even offered to care for the widower's two chil­dren.
Iwasaki hoped that, by being separated from his socialist
friends in Japan, Katayama would lose interest in their causes.
This was a vain wish, however, for Katayama soon began attend­ing
labor union and socialist meetings in the south of Texas. Even
on the trip to Texas, he had stopped in San Francisco to help
organize the Japanese Socialist Association for the many immi­grants
in that city.
55
Sen Katayama, often
called the "Father
of Asian Communism"
In May of 1904 Katayama traveled to Chicago to attend
the American Socialist Party's national convention. In August of
the same year he went to Amsterdam, where he denounced the
Russo-Japanese War in an address before the Sixth Congress of
the Second International. He created a further stir by shaking
hands with the Russian delegate to the congress.
These actions did not endear him to his Japanese neigh­bors
in Garwood. Hashimoto in particular was no doubt upset,
since his brother-in-law represented the Meiji government as
consul general in New York. Also the war with Russia was quite
popular among Japanese everywhere, while Katayama's anti-war
stance was not. Thus when he returned to Texas Katayama did
not settle on his farm in Garwood. The details of what happened
are not clear, but Katayama later wrote that a Japanese farmer
in Garwood told him that the water supply situation there was
not good. Acting on the farmer's advice, Katayama resettled on
a quarter section of land in the community of Aldine, north of
Houston. He later discovered, however, that this same farmer had
had a very successful harvest, and he therefore assumed that the
warning about the water had been a ruse to get him to move.
Whether urged or tricked to leave Garwood, Katayama
continued his promotion of labor-unionism and socialism from
his farm in Aldine. In an interview with a Japanese journalist,
Katayama claimed he was simply resting on his farm, having
become weary from his seven years in Japan fighting for socialist
56
causes. But during the next winter he found time to write a book,
Socialist Parties of the World. He also wrote about his Texas expe­riences
for Japanese newspapers and for some of the socialist­oriented
emigration magazines in Japan, such as Tobei Zasshi
(Magazine for the American Bound).
When spring of 1905 arrived, however, Katayama was
ready to try his hand at farming rice. With the help of three
younger Japanese men - Katayama was then 46 years old - 50
acres of rice were planted. Unfortunately, unusually hot and dry
weather ruined the crop. Katayama blamed not only the weather,
but also his own inexperience and his poor choice of land.
Although his fortunes were temporarily down, Katayama's
commitment to colonizing the area with Japanese was stronger
than ever. After his crop failed he went to Houston and worked
in Tom Brown Okasaki's restaurant as cook and waiter (before
Tom Brown's expansion into the tea and art goods business and
also before his ill-fated rice venture of 1907).
Tom Brown and Katayama soon became fast friends, and
they eventually became partners in a plan to bring 200 families
from Japan to form a colony of truck farmers. Toward this goal
Tom Brown purchased more than 10,000 acres of land 100 miles
south of San Antonio in the two counties of Live Oak and McMul­len,
paying more than $6,000 for the property. Where he obtained
such large amounts of money is not known, but an offer by Tom
Brown, recorded in Saibara's journal, to lend Saibara $5,000 any
time he needed it was apparently no idle boast.
The next step in Katayama and Tom Brown's colonization
plan required returning to Japan, which they did in January 1906.
Katayama received the support of his friend Iwasaki, who raised
$100,000 for the project. Iwasaki also formed the Nippon Kono
Kabushiki Kaisha, or the Japan Farming Company, which would
handle the business end of the South Texas colony. Tom Brown's
task in Japan was to recruit farmers. Although he had difficulty
doing so, Tom Brown Okasaki finally signed up 30 families.
In the meantime Katayama was into his old socialist activ­ities.
He attended an important meeting of Japanese socialists in
Tokyo, and later he participated in a large demonstration against
increased fares on Tokyo's streetcars. His behavior displeased
Iwasaki greatly, and he asked Katayama to return immediately
57
to Texas. Using the threat of withdrawal of his support for the
farming project, Iwasaki also made Katayama promise to cease
all activities as a socialist. Katayama seemed willing to do this,
in part because of a growing split within the Japanese socialist
movement. Katayama's moderate approach of working within the
parliamentary system was being challenged by much more radical
views. But perhaps even more important to Katayama was his
commitment and belief in the South Texas farm project. So in
July of 1906 Katayama returned to Texas.
At this point there are two interpretations of what fol­lowed.
One historian claims that Tom Brown Okasaki's intentions
had always been dishonorable and that he was actually a real
estate swindler. Thus it is alleged that, after securing $500 toward
the purchase of land in Texas from each of 30 families, Tom Brown
returned to the United States, leaving those families in Japan.
A more probable and authoritative account of this episode, how­ever,
is that Tom Brown actually did bring the 30 families to
America. But, like Iwasaki, he did not approve of Katayama's
socialist activities. Furthermore, he was not happy with his sub­ordinate
position to Katayama in the Japan Farming Company.
He expressed these feelings to the 30 families and discussed alter­natives.
After some trouble with immigration authorities when
they disembarked in Seattle, Okasaki decided to release the
families from their contracts and allow them to go their separate
ways. He then returned alone to Texas in September 1906.
But there was another problem when Tom Brown arrived
back in Houston. Katayama had contacted his American socialist
friends in Texas and had asked them to serve on the board of direc­tors
of the Japan Farming Company. It had perhaps always been
Katayama's intention to turn the farming project and the colony
into a socialist utopia. In any case, Katayama needed Tom Brown
Okasaki's signature to file the company's charter with the state.
Not too surprisingly, Tom Brown refused to sign. Instead he
reported Katayama's actions to Iwasaki, who was so angry with
Katayama for breaking his promise and continuing his associa­tion
with socialists that he formally dissolved the company and
withdrew all support for the project. Katayama subsequently
returned to Japan in February 1907, and Tom Brown sold the
58
10,000 acres of land in Live Oak and McMullen counties, there­after
concentrating his activities more in the Houston area.
After this episode in Texas Katayama continued his work
for socialist causes. He later returned to the United States but
never again visited Texas. In 1921 he went to Moscow, where he
lived out the rest of his life. After his death in 1933 at the age
of 74, Sen Katayama was honored by Soviet officials with a formal
burial in the Kremlin.
While Katayama and Okasaki's push to bring colonists to
Texas was aborted, other contemporary efforts gave birth to a
surge of Japanese into the state. One source of interest in immigra­tion
came from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St.
Louis. This world's fair, which was held to commemorate the
Louisiana Purchase 100 years before, quickly became a popular
meeting place for wealthy and important Japanese traveling in
the United States. Sen Katayama stopped there on his way to the
Second International held in Amsterdam, while other visitors
included Japanese businessmen and members of japan's parlia­ment.
The setting was conducive to conversation and exchange
of information. One topic arousing special interest was the Japa­nese
farming experiments then under way around Houston.
One man who found the idea of large-scale rice farming
intriguing was Shinpei Maekawa, an official delegate to the expo­sition
from Osaka. Maekawa was a handsome and likeable young
man with a degree from an Osaka college. Although he was heir
to great wealth, Maekawa was not satisfied with relaxing in
luxury; he was a doer. Before returning to Japan he and several
friends stopped in Texas to look into the possibility of investing
in a rice farm. Because two of Maekawa's traveling companions
were current or former members of parliament, the group no
doubt visited the farm of former representative Seito Saibara.
Over the years the Saibara farm had become something of a
showpiece; it was visited often by businessmen, politicians and
informed travelers from Japan who were curious to see a large­scale
rice farming colony.
Maekawa was impressed, and he spent the next year in
Japan making preparations to emigrate. Late in 1906 he returned
to Texas with five young recruits, each with $500 to invest. Com­bined,
this was enough to put a down payment on 520 acres of
59
Shinpei Maekawa
land south of Houston. The property was near the railway station
of Erin and the tracks of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad.
It was purchased on the advice of Garret A. Dobbin, colonization
agent for the railroad company. Although it was his job to help
people like Maekawa, Dobbin also genuinely liked the Japanese.
He even helped Maekawa buy the farm equipment and supplies
that the group would need.
During the colony's first year, though, tragedy struck. In
a field accident Maekawa was pinned beneath a piece of his own
equipment. By the time help arrived Shinpei Maekawa was dead,
a victim perhaps of his own inexperience. Maekawa's accident,
however, was not an isolated one. A 1910 U.S. Immigration Com­mission
reported that "most of the accidents that befall the
Japanese are caused either from carelessness in the use of ma­chinery
or by injuries inflicted by mules:'
When Dobbin heard the news of the accident, he rushed
to the farm and wept over Maekawa's lifeless body. As a tribute
to his friend Dobbin renamed the railroad station at Erin Mykawa
60
Station. (In the process he slightly changed the spelling of Mae­kawa's
name.) Today, although the station no longer exists, the
road paralleling the railroad tracks south from Houston is still
called Mykawa Road.
~ ~
. ~
After the accident Maekawa's wife in Japan sent a man
to manage the farm, but the venture ended in failure several years
later. The nearby farm of Teisho Takeda, one of the men who
had first visited Texas with Maekawa, also folded about the same
time. Such farming failures were not unusual, since most of the
Japanese rice ventures around Houston were eventually aban­doned.
Why this was so is not readily apparent. After all, most
of the Japanese who bought farms had adequate financing and
a reliable pool of workers. Of course, problems which face all
farmers - bad weather, crop disease, insects - took their toll among
Japanese rice farmers. But there were other problems, too.
For example, early rice farmers in Texas, as is the case
today, were dependent on a reliable and steady flow of water to
keep their fields irrigated. During droughts smaller streams and
61
"Rice well" flume,
part of the rice
irrigation system,
El Campo
creeks were apt to dry up, possibly ruining the crop. Water wells
were more reliable, but they were also very expensive to drill,
often costing $1,000 or more. Because most Japanese in Texas had
limited finances, especially those on the smaller farms, they often
gambled and relied on wet weather to keep the creeks and rivers
running. Sometimes they lost.
The cooperative aspect of some of the Japanese farms also
became a problem when dissension arose over how the farms
should be run. Since few of the Japanese had real experience in
large-scale rice cultivation, honest differences of opinion were
bound to occur. Also the Japanese who financed and managed
the farms were not always farmers. Bankers, oil dealers, tea mer­chants,
students and landowners were among the first group of
Japanese "rice farmers" in Texas. Simple inexperience, lack of farm­ing
expertise and occasional mismanagement were all factors
leading to the downfall of some projects.
One problem faced by the Japanese in the first few years
was totally unexpected. Despite earlier visions that they might
eventually produce rice for export to Japan, the Japanese in Texas
at first had to sell their product regionally like other rice farmers.
But because the American public's taste for rice did not increase
62
with the farmers' ability to grow it, overproduction sometimes
occurred. Farmers were simply growing too much rice. When this
happened, prices fell and farms went out of business. Still this
was more the exception than the rule, since rice prices generally
rose until after the end of World War I in 1918.
Even though most Japanese rice ventures eventually went
bankrupt, some prospered for many years. Such was the case with
the Onishi colony. After bringing his wife, daughter and workers
from Japan in 1904, Rihei Onishi and his cousin, Toraichi Onishi,
settled on their farm in Webster and grew rice. Although neither
was a farmer, the two cousins managed well enough with the
assistance of their Japanese workers, most of whom had been
farmers in Japan. Rihei Onishi was even able to continue his work
as a journalist for the Jiji Shimpo on a part-time basis. He covered
stories such as the 1905 Portsmouth Conference in New Hamp­shire,
which ended the Russo-Japanese War. He also wrote a few
articles for emigration magazines in Japan.
japanese peace envoys and news reporters at the 1905 Portsmouth
Conference; Rihei Onishi is hatless, slightly right of center.
Most of the Onishi colonists were from Rihei's home
prefecture of Ehime on Shikoku, the same island that was the
63
Saibara ancestral home. Many were relatives of Rihei and Toraichi
Onishi. For example, Toraichi's brother, Soichi, and Rihei's two
brothers, Iwajiro Onishi and Eijiro Onishi Kondo, all worked on
the farm. The second cousin of all five of these men, Jitsuji Onishi,
also came over, making the colony very much a family affair.
The nature of the Onishi rice venture changed dramatical­ly
in January 1907, when some of the colonists moved onto 2,224
acres of land at "Prairie Bluff' in Wharton County on the Colorado
River. Situated near Mackay, a flag stop on the Southern Pacific
Railroad, the farm was financed by Japanese businessmen from
the Morimura Brothers trading company in New York. In 1910
most of the 17 men and six women members of the colony worked
100-acre tracts of land on a sharecropping basis, paying two-fifths
of their crop as rent. For this payment they were supplied with
land, housing and water for irrigation. The Onishis operated the
remaining rice fields and adjoining ranch land. They raised sor­ghum
and soybeans for the cattle and vegetables for themselves.
A portion of the property was covered in cotton grown by black
and Mexican-American sharecroppers.
Silo and thresher used for sorghum and soybeans, Onishi colony, 1917
One of the foremen hired by Rihei Onishi to help manage
the workers in the rice fields was Yonekichi Kagawa. In 1907
64
Onishi wrote to an agricultural college in Japan and asked that
the school's best students come work for him. Kagawa was one
of the two top graduates who came. Although he was not yet 20
years old when he arrived, Kagawa was put in charge of a group
of about 30 laborers, composed mainly of Japanese, but including
blacks, Anglos, Austrians, Mexican Americans and White
Russians as well.
Kagawa returned to Japan in 1913 to marry Kichi Mura­kami.
The newlyweds traveled to Wharton County, where they
worked on the Onishi farm for six years. In 1919 the Kagawas
moved near Webster to farm rice on their own and to bring up
their growing family. In all, the couple raised 12 children, most
of whom still live in Texas.
Yonekichi Kagawa; his
wife, Kichi; son, Thomas;
" 'C n t • Pc 6 " ',.. . oil and daughter, Fumi
The Japanese sharecroppers on the Onishi farm were
fairly isolated from one another on their 100-acre plots of land.
Even more difficult than visiting neighbors, however, was getting
into town. Recognizing this, the Onishis established a "company
65
Onishi colony headquarters, including company store, 1917
store;' where groceries and clothing could be purchased at prices
slightly lower than in town. But apart from serving as a retail
center, the company store was also a social center, a clearinghouse
for information and gossip. Although separated from one another
on their farms, the Japanese could thus maintain contact with
their friends and other countrymen in Wharton County.
Most of the Japanese immigrants in the Onishi colony
were men. This created real problems for the stability and future
of the colony. Without wives the men could not be expected to
work and remain on their farms forever. While some men did
have Japanese wives with them and others had temporarily left
their wives in Japan, the great majority were still unmarried. To
complicate matters, the incidence of Japanese men marrying local
women was very rare. This was in part because of white resis­tance
to such marriages and in part because of the preference
of Japanese men for women of their own race.
Seeing the problem, Rihei Onishi left for Japan in 1909
to recruit women who would marry his colonists. At least three
of the seven or eight women he eventually brought back with
him were what were known as "picture brides:' These were
women who had agreed to marry men they had never met.
Because the prospective bride and groom in such marriages were
in different countries, photographs were typically exchanged so
that each could register his or her approval or disapproval of the
other. This was a common method for finding a bride for Japanese
66
Picture brides disembarking at San Francisco, 1914
immigrant men at the time. When both parties were satisfied a
ceremony was held in Japan-the groom in absentia. The wedding
was then duly recorded, and the bride was free to go to America.
This marriage ceremony in Japan became crucial after the 1908
Gentlemen's Agreement, because unless a Japanese woman was
actually married to a man already in the United States, she would
usually be classified as a laborer and thus be ineligible for immi­gration.
In any case, authorities at the port of entry also exercised
a great deal of discretion concerning who they would and would
not let in, as Rihei Onishi soon discovered.
When Onishi and his group of Japanese women landed
in San Francisco, they were all refused entry. The port authorities
accused Onishi of trying to bring prostitutes into the country.
Although the facts are not clear, the women with Onishi had
presumably gone through a legal marriage ceremony in Japan,
even though every groom may not have yet received a photograph
of his bride. Possibly a few of the women were still single but
expected to be married once they reached Texas. This was highly
67
improbable, however, since Onishi surely knew the terms of the
Gentlemen's Agreement. In all likelihood, the San Francisco
authorities simply decided that Rihei and his group "looked" too
suspicious to be let in. It was certainly within their authority to
deny the Japanese entry. Also, in San Francisco the attitude toward
Japanese immigrants in 1909 was quite inimical, which could have
affected the discretionary policy of the local immigration office.
Onishi and his company were thus forced to make hasty
plans to sail to Mexico, where they hoped to disembark, then
travel overland to the border crossing at Eagle Pass, Texas. They
felt it might be easier to enter the country there than in San
Francisco. After a long and difficult journey the group finally
reached the Texas border, and, to the relief of all, they were
allowed to cross.
The Rihei Onishi and Iwajiro Onishi families, 1920
Front row, left to right: Frank {son of Iwajiro}; Mrs. Iwajiro;
Mrs. Rihei; Rihei; Massey {son of Rihei}; back: Nina {daughter of
Rihei}; Iwajiro; May, George and Julia {children of Rihei}
From its beginning in 1907 until 1919, the Onishi farm
in Wharton County was very successful. Its prosperity was linked
to the slow, if occasionally irregular, rise in the price of rice. From
the beginning of World War I in 1914, this upward trend acceler-
68
ated because of an increased demand for food from the warring
nations in Europe. But with the cessation of hostilities in 1918
and a return to European agricultural stability, the general de­mand
for rice slackened. Consequently the price of rice plum­meted.
Over the next several years rice fell from a wartime high
of $15 per 100 pounds to about $3, far lower than the $8 per 100
pounds that farmers received in 1904 when the Onishis harvested
their first crop.
The drop in rice prices devastated both Japanese and non­Japanese
farmers in Texas. In 1924, after 17 years on the same
land, the Onishi colony finally succumbed. The land was sold
to payoff debts, leaving employers, employees and sharecroppers
on their own. Many continued to farm in Texas, but most stayed
away from rice, concentrating more on vegetables and cotton.
Others moved to the cities, and a few probably returned to Japan
or went to California. A large number found jobs working for
other Japanese Texans, mostly in plant nurseries.
Even after the dispersal of the colony the cohesiveness
of the Onishi group remained remarkably strong. When the Great
Depression struck in the 1930's, these Japanese formed the Ehime
Chokin Kumiai, or Ehime Prefectural Savings Association. Mem­bers
of this "bank" pooled their money and then loaned it out to
members who needed it. To qualify as a member one had to be
an immigrant from Ehime Prefecture in Japan, which in this case
meant one was probably a former member of the Onishi colony.
Such organizations were common on the West Coast, but this was
the only Japanese association of its kind in Texas, and it continued
in operation until the beginning of World War II.
Rihei Onishi had traveled through war-torn Europe in
1919 and covered the Paris Peace Conference for his newspaper,
fiji Shimpo. On his return to the United States, he moved his family
to Massachusetts, and in 1920 he went back to Japan, where he
eventually became editor-in-chief of the paper. He died in 1945.
As of 1986 his three daughters and one son still live in Massa­chusetts;
his other son lives in Michigan.
The Onishi colonists, of course, were not the only Japanese
rice farmers in Texas. In terms of sheer numbers, the greatest
concentration of Japanese in 1909 was in the Webster area, where
there was a total of 66 men, eight women and two children living
69
Seito Saibara (foreground) and son Kiyoaki (on horse) during rice harvesting
on fIVe farms. The Saibara property near Webster had expanded
from its original 304 acres to nearly 900 acres, three-quarters of
which was under cultivation. rno other farms, together covering
1,000 acres, were also owned by Japanese, and two 400-acre farms
were leased. Whether one of these farms was the original Nishi­mura
property purchased in 1903 is not clear. All that is known
about Nishimura is that several years after establishing his farm,
he left Texas to resume his career as a tea merchant.
The story of the Saibaras after their settling in Webster
in 1903-1904, and of the people who followed them, is much better
".~
-_.'' ---", .-;;,.-.:.t
\ ~
Kiyoaki Saibara (far left) and friends
70
documented. In many respects, Seito Saibara's dream of a rice
colony was very similar to that of the Onishis. Saibara, however,
was able ultimately to attract more people. Like Onishi, Saibara
wrote articles for emigration magazines telling of opportunities
in Texas, but even more articles were written about Saibara. This
publicity brought more than one Japanese immigrant to Webster.
Finding an established colony there, many immigrants stayed,
their presence increasing the area's popularity among Japanese.
A typical pattern of settlement for an individual in either
the Webster or the Mackay colony might have unfolded as follows:
The immigrant arrives in Webster, having come perhaps through
invitation or because of simple curiosity. He works at one of the
large Japanese farms, learning the techniques of large-scale rice
culture. If he is single, he may live in a small bunkhouse and
eat meals prepared by the farm owner's wife. If he is married,
his wife has probably not accompanied him. Instead she is waiting
for her husband to send for her after he establishes himself and
saves enough money for her ship and train fare. If he is single,
he may take a picture bride, or he may actually return to Japan
in order to marry. When he is ready the immigrant becomes a
sharecropper and leases land. Land ownership may follow,
although many immigrants make a good living by only leasing
the land they farm. For the latter group, when crop yields fall
off, usually after seven or eight years, they move to another farm.
Those who do buy land, however, may need other Japanese to
help farm it, thus completing the settlement cycle. Naturally, there
were infinite variations on this general theme, but, as in all things
human, one thing was certain: Some immigrants would succeed,
and some would fail.
Sometimes the fine line between failure and success
depended on the ability of the Japanese to adapt to the large-scale
growing methods required on Texas rice farms. The experts
brought from Japan by Saibara were no doubt helpful in this
regard. In general, the style of rice cultivation employed by the
colonists was similar to that used by other Texas rice farmers,
and in many ways it was patterned after the large-scale growing
of wheat and oats in the American Midwest.
For example, the process of growing rice on a large scale
began with the seeding of fields using a large, cylindrical drum.
71
Known as a "drill," this device was filled with seed rice and pulled
across the terrain by draft animals. The drill neatly and efficiently
sowed seeds into rows. In later years this device was replaced
on some farms by seeding from airplanes. But in addition to
planting most of their land with machinery, some Japanese still
planted small areas of land by hand, as was the practice in Japan.
Whether this was done for practical reasons or out of nostalgia
is not known.
After planting in early to mid-April, the rice fields were
thereafter kept covered with three to six inches of water. A com­plex
system of canals and side ditches was used to bring water
from its source onto the fields. The sizes of fields ranged from
Z5 to 80 acres.
Rice harvesting, Matagorda County, c. 1908
As the crop ripened the fields were drained so that the
heavy harvest machinery would not sink in the mud. The time
of harvest depended greatly on the amount of water given the
crop during the growing season. The ripened rice was harvested
by a large machine known as a "binder." Drawn by four or five
mules, the binder cut the rice stalks and bound them together
in large bundles. The fmal process in the harvest involved a huge,
steam-powered threshing machine which separated the rice ker­nels
from the rest of the plant, with the rough rice ending up
in ZOO-pound bags or barrels.
Early observers reported that the Japanese at first hired
other Americans to run the complicated farm machinery. Numer-
72
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Ci)'
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ous people were required to operate the thresher and all its com­ponents
properly. Each American employee running a machine
was typically given a Japanese helper, who in the course of a year
would learn to run the machine and thus replace his teacher.
During the harvest, however, outside labor was always needed.
Even with the Japanese working cooperatively to harvest each
others' fields, there was enough work to go around for everyone.
The Onishi family (center) with rice bags, Mackay, 1908
After the rice was threshed the huge rice bags were sewn
up. If barrels were used, each barrel had to be capped. The rice
was then loaded on wagons, driven to a warehouse and unloaded.
To help with the harvest, young Japanese field hands on occasion
came from as far away as Colorado and New Mexico.
Running a large rice farm did not leave Japanese Texans
with much free time. A 1910 Immigration Commission report
revealed that:
... the Japanese remain so quietly by themselves that were
it not for their industry in improving their farms the neighbors
would not know of their existence.
Although the commission's finding here was probably overstated,
early Japanese immigrants in Texas often did keep to themselves,
74
Wagons delivering bagged rice for shipping and milling, Bay City,
Matagorda County, c. 1901
with the possible exception of church attendance for those who
were Christians. A few of the Japanese, like Seito Saibara, were
converted to Christianity in Japan. Others were first exposed to
Western religious beliefs in Japanese schools run by Western
churches and were later converted to Christianity in the United
States. Incidentally, these church schools in Japan were where
many Japanese immigrants first learned English and also may
have been where some of them first got the idea of emigrating
to the United States.
The generally good relationship between Japanese and
their neighbors in Texas was in sharp contrast to the often bitter
race relations on the West Coast. One reason for this difference
was the small number of Japanese living in Texas as compared
to California, where most Japanese Americans resided. For exam­ple,
in 1920 there were 449 Japanese Texans in a state population
of more than 41/2 million, while in California's population of less
than 3V2 million, more than 70,000 Japanese could be found. The
more Japanese there were, the more likely they would be seen
as a threat by others. This meant that a trait like the noted "indus­triousness"
of Japanese immigrants could be viewed in Texas as
an economic contribution to the state, while in California it could
be seen as an economic threat to the jobs of white workers. Of
course, prejudice and discrimination against Japanese did occur
in Texas but never on the scale experienced in California.
75
The major complaint voiced by Japanese in Texas did not
concern state law or mistreatment by their neighbors, as was often
the case in California. Rather it dealt with the unequal treatment
of Japanese in federal law, specifIcally with regard to citizenship.
The inability to become American citizens greatly decreased the
motivation for Japanese to invest their lives and fortunes in the
future of the United States, as so many European immigrants
before them had been allowed to do. Of course, this was a contin­ual
sore spot for all Japanese in the United States, not only Japa­nese
in Texas. Moreover, it hurt the pride of potential Japanese
emigrants and may have kept many from coming to this country.
It is even uncertain whether Seito Saibara would have settled in
the US. had he known the law, because within three weeks of
his arrival in Houston in 1903, he fIled a declaration of his intent
to become an American citizen. Surprisingly, Houston officials
accepted the forms, with Consul General Uchida acting as wit­ness.
More than a year later, however, Saibara's forms were
declared invalid by US. officials. The naturalization office in
Houston apologetically notifIed Saibara, who was understandably
upset. He wanted to take his case to court but was counseled by
the senior Japanese official in the US. to have patience. In 1922
in Ozawa vs. u.s., however, the 1790 naturalization law which
Saibara wanted to challenge was upheld.
In the meantime Saibara decided to burn his bridges
behind him and go ahead with his colonization plans. In 1907
he asked his father, Masuya, to sell the family land in Japan and
come to Texas. Although the family only owned seven or eight
acres, in Japan this was enough to make them large landowners
with numerous tenants. When Masuya sold this property, he
invited his tenants to follow him to Texas. Many eventually did.
The 74-year-old Masuya had made his living in Japan by
leasing land and by producing soy bean paste, which is used to
make soup as well as soy sauce, a seasoning found in most Japa­nese
cooking. When Masuya came to Texas he brought all the
necessary equipment with him to carryon this home industry.
For the fIrst few years after his arrival, the colony enjoyed tradi­tional
Japanese cuisine. But as time passed and the difficulty in
obtaining ingredients increased, the Japanese in the Saibara colony
began to eat more American food . Quite naturally, however, rice,
76
which was often served with fish caught in a local lake or in
nearby streams, remained a staple in the colonists' diet.
Some American customs and habits were adopted by the
Japanese faster than others. For example, in style of dress the
Japanese wore the same kind of clothes as other Texas farmers.
A notable exception was the head and foot gear that many Japa­nese
preferred. Large, round-rimmed hats made of rice straw were
worn in the fields to protect workers against the sun, and tradi­tional
straw sandals known as zori were worn around the farm.
Japanese farmers, c. 1905
As in Japan, everyone left their sandals outside the entrances of
houses upon entering. In Japanese homes this custom served to
protect the tatami, or soft straw mats which covered the floors.
But in Texas, where the luxury of tatami did not exist, leaving
one's shoes at the door at least kept the wood floors clean.
One element of American life - the use of English - was
adopted slowly by most issei immigrants. Some were naturally
more fluent than others, perhaps having had English classes in
77
Japanese schools, but such classes were not the norm. Thus, as
with most immigrant groups, it was up to the second generation,
the nisei, to attain real fluency in English. At the same time,
however, many nisei also learned to speak Japanese from their
parents. When they got older they were able to act as their parents'
interpreters. Still, living on farms as many did, the Japanese issei
could easily get by with only a minimal knowledge of English.
This was one reason why farming attracted some of the early
Japanese immigrants, but of course it was not the only reason.
Some became farmers in Texas simply because they liked farming,
while others did it perhaps because it was all they knew.
But even those who were not farmers by trade, such as
Seito Saibara, seemed to enjoy farming. From his arrival in 1903
until 1924, Saibara was content to remain on his farm. At one
point, his friends in the Japanese government asked him to
become japan's minister of education, but Saibara declined the
generous offer. Over the years Saibara expanded his operations
into cotton farming and orange growing but unfortunately with
only limited success. For a time he even owned a nursery with
a branch office in Mobile, Alabama, but it later went out of
business. Following the crash in rice prices after World War I,
Saibara somehow managed to hang on. In 1924, however, federal
legislation accomplished what a drop in rice prices could not.
By halting all Japanese immigration into the United States, the
1924 Johnson-Reed Act crushed any remaining hope for the future
growth of Saibara's colony.
Deeply disillusioned, 63-year-old Seito Saibara and his
wife, Taiko, left Texas in 1924 and settled in Pindamonhangaba,
Brazil, in the Amazon River basin. During the next eight and a
half years Seito farmed rice and started a Japanese colony. In 1932
the Saibaras decided to go back to Texas for a visit, then travel
on to Japan to meet with government officials concerning the
establishment of a tomato-growing venture in Taiwan. Seito
became seriously ill, however, so in 1937 he and Taiko returned
to Webster to the farm that Kiyoaki had operated since their
departure. Because of the 1924 federal law, however, the govern­ment
informed the couple that they could only stay for a week.
When he learned this Seito called Washington, D.C., and talked
to Henry Stimson, an old friend who had been secretary of state
78
Seito Saibara's welcoming party, Webste~ 1932, when he was en route
from Brazil to Japan. Seito is in the second row, just left of center.
Members of the Kiyoaki Saibara, Kobayashi, Watanabe, Kagawa and
Sawamura families surround him.
from 1929 to 1932 during the Hoover Administration. Coinci­dentally,
Stimson was also secretary of war during World War
II. When Seito explained that he wanted to live out his life in
this country and be with his family and friends during his last
days, a sympathetic Stimson made the necessary arrangements
for him to stay.
1Wo years later, in April of 1939 at the age of 78, Seito
Saibara died and was buried in a family plot purchased years
before. His funeral was held in Webster Presbyterian Church,
where he had been a faithful and devoted member of the congre­gation
for many years.
Seito's son, Kiyoaki, continued to farm rice until he retired
in 1964 at age 79. One of his sons, Robert, farmed rice after World
War II but later decided not to continue. So in 1972, when Kiyoaki
died, Seito Saibara's dream of a large Japanese rice colony died
with him. Ironically, the area south of Houston near the old
Saibara farm is today one of the richest rice-producing regions
in the state.
79
four
Japanese-Texan rice growers in the early 20th century did
not confine themselves to the Saibara and Onishi colonies.
Many Japanese farms dotted the plains along the southeast
Texas gulf. For the most part these were large-scale projects
requiring considerable sums of capital. Although profit was
always a consideration, the reasons for promoting such ventures
varied from owner to owner.
Some, like Saibara and the Onishi cousins, were interested
in attracting Japanese families who would settle down as tenant
farmers or as landowners. Less altruistic were others who simply
wanted to develop their own land by using less expensive Japa­nese
laborers. An example of this latter type of settlement arose
in southeast Texas near Beaumont and the small town of Fannett
in Jefferson County.
In 1904, when Shinpei Maekawa visited Texas to look into
the prospects for farming rice, one of his three traveling compan­ions
was Yoshio Mayumi, a banker, wealthy landowner and
former member of the Japanese parliament. After the group's
initial visit, Mayumi returned to Texas in 1906 with a number
81
of Japanese men, including Maekawa and Teisho Takeda. Both
Maekawa and Takeda established farms south of Houston, but
Mayumi purchased 1,734 acres of land near Fannett, ten miles
south of Beaumont. He paid $15,000 cash for this property, which
included water wells, pumps and several old houses. A balance
of $20,000 plus interest was due in fIVe years.
In 1906 eight men from Yoshio Mayumi's home town in
Mie Prefecture on the main island of Honshu came to Fannett
as contract laborers. Seven more followed the next year. The exact
terms of the thre

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The Japanese Texans
by Thomas K. Walls
Copyright @1987, 1996
The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
801 South Bowie Street, San Antonio, Texas 78205-3296
Rex H. Ball, Executive Director
Produced by the staff of the Institute Production Division
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 87-50131
International Standard Book Number 0-86701-073-8
Second Edition, 1996
This publication was made possible in part by
the Houston Endowment, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
contents
Preface 7
Chapter One 9
Chapter 1Wo 19
Chapter Three 39
Chapter Four 81
Chapter Five 101
Chapter Six 123
Chapter Seven 143
Chapter Eight 175
Chapter Nine 205
Epilogue 229
Appendix 231
Acknowledgments 233
Sources 235
Photo Credits 247
Index 251
preface
At the turn of the century there were 13 Japanese living
in Texas. Forty years later, prior to World War II, there were about
500 Japanese in the state; by 1980 that number had risen to 10,502.
While this may seem quite a substantial increase, Japanese Texans
still constitute less than one-tenth of one percent of the total
population of Texas. Also, their numbers are growing quite slow­ly.
For example, in 1970 they were the most numerous Asian­American
group in Texas, but by 1980 they were sixth behind
the Vietnamese, Chinese, (Asian) Indians, Filipinos and Koreans.
"Why write a book about so few people?" is a question
that is certain to come to mind.
A partial answer is that there are special reasons why the
Japanese-Texan population is small. When the Japanese began
coming to the United States more than a hundred years ago, there
was considerable anti-Chinese prejudice among inhabitants of
the West Coast. Soon unfavorable attitudes toward the Japanese
developed as well and were eventually passed from one genera­tion
to the next. In 1924 a growing anti-Japanese movement influ­enced
the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act, a federal law which,
in part, prohibited further immigration of Japanese to the United
States. With the exception of war brides after World War II,
Japanese were not allowed to settle in this country again until
1952, when Congress passed the McCarran-Walter Act.
Although few in number, Japanese Texans deserve recog­nition
for their contributions to the state. Already there are fourth-
7
and ilfth-generation Japanese Texans, and this book is a story of
their ancestors. But it is more than that.
It is also a story of the relationship between Japanese
Texans and their neighbors. In the past Texas was fairly isolated
from the strong anti-Japanese feelings of those living on the West
Coast. For this reason, there was a greater opportunity for Texans
to see beyond the popular West Coast caricature of the Japanese.
Nonetheless, this positive relationship between Japanese Texans
and their neighbors was punctuated from time to time with
periods of ill will. Such animosity was usually associated with
broader issues and common feelings found throughout the coun­try.
For example, hostility against Japan during World War II led
to legislation which put more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese
ancestry into relocation and internment camps, several of which
were located in Texas. This created the sad and ironic situation
in which Japanese-American soldiers in France were fighting to
rescue a battalion of the 36th (Texas) Division, while back in Texas
many of their relatives were spending the war behind barbed wire
with armed guards.
Such inconsistency in the treatment of Japanese Ameri­cans
was caused in part by a lack of understanding by the general
public. The result has been mixed opinions about Japanese Amer­icans,
so that even today they are misunderstood by many. If the
chain of misunderstanding is ever to be broken, the Japanese must
be seen in terms that go beyond the stereotypes and misconcep­tions
of the past. And if a story about the lives and times of
Japanese in Texas can give us such a view, then it is a story well
worth telling.
1890
3
1940
458
Japanese Population* of Texas
1900
13
1950
957
1910
340
1960
4,053
1920
449
1970
6,537
1930
519
1980
10,502
'u.s. Census counts, especially those reflecting national origin or heritage, must be viewed
with some reservation. "Race;' 'country of origin;' "foreign born;' "foreign stock" and "nativity"
are all terms that have been used at one time or another by the u.s. Census to differentiate
the Japanese and other minorities from one another. The use of such different criteria
has resulted in totals that vary according to the criteria themselves. With this in mind,
the above totals should be treated as "best guesses," since they are, in any case, the best
information available.
8
one
For most Americans December 7, 1941, began like any
other Sunday in December. With Christmas only 17 days
away, morning newspapers carried advertisements for
gifts alongside local and national news. While headlines spoke
of negotiations with Japan and of the war in Europe, such trouble
seemed too far away and remote to have any real bearing on daily
routine. As an editorial in The Houston Post had said only two
days earlier:
Few Americans even now understand the gravity of the
situation ... . Main Street still believes that somehow this
Far Eastern crisis will dissolve as others have dissolved in
the past. The average American man·in·the·street echoes the
blunt remark of Senator Tom Connally, chairman of the
Senate commit tee on foreign relations, who said a few days
ago, "Aw, the Japanese are just bluffing:'
But the Japanese were not bluffing. This fact had conse­quences
for both the United States and for Japan, and also for
a small group of less than 500 people living in Texas. These people
were a group, but not because they were from one community.
On the contrary, they resided in at least 20 different counties,
9
from El Paso in the west to Orange in the east, and from Dallas
and Tarrant counties in the north to Cameron County in the south.
They were a group because of their common Japanese ancestry.
An estimated one-third of this group were not American
citizens. They were the Japanese issei. Issei (pronounced ee-say)
is a term used by the Japanese meaning "first generation:' They
were the pioneers from Japan who first migrated to the u.s. But
they, along with all other Asians born outside the United States,
were forbidden by a federal law passed in 1790 from becoming
citizens. This legislation stated that, in order for an alien to become
a citizen, he or she had to be a "free white person:' Subsequent
changes in the law gave American blacks, blacks from Africa and
other Asian groups the right of citizenship, but not until 1952 were
Japanese given this privilege. All children, however, no matter
what their skin color, have always received American citizenship
if born in the United States. Indeed, the children of Japanese
immigrants, although calling themselves nisei, considered
themselves 100 percent "American:' Nisei (pronounced nee-say)
is a Japanese term simply meaning "second generation" and is a
way of referring to the children of the issei.
Nisei children at Easter picnic, League City, 1936
10
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- "
~ A " :r.{" 1v"li 'E-::::.yV
out· at half past eight ill the morning.
ItA. t: {
'fji W .s-I-i\'4ilt t.> 't~ t: 0:1;!i;" " ~ '.
i(i'"(·""·
~~ < ,-
A ~ - ,vm---l t..-an-Q -C r~ I ' " "". .,
Itl'. Ih'-Q-C": ~:I;aHJ1! ~ I' ·
A ... ·:: Ittl
t.>1!t:ltj)!;mli
1:*1,.~H .
Conversational aid for Japanese "school boy" (d e tail)
26
In 1884 the character of japanese emigration changed
when the Meiji government began allowing "laborers" to leave
the country. This meant that virtually all japanese were now eligi­ble
to emigrate. One reason for the policy change was that it
opened up new opportunities for the long-suffering farmer in
japan. Although the government's modernization program had
improved conditions for most Japanese, many farmers were still
economically pinched. To be sure, beginning with the Meiji
Restoration in 1868, farmers had been encouraged to move to
the large, relatively unpopulated northern island of Hokkaido.
This migration north was sponsored by the government in much
the same manner as the settling of the American West. In 16 years
more than 105,000 Japanese pioneers went to Hokkaido, but by
1884 this movement north was almost at a halt. In the meantime
other farmers had moved to the cities, but the effects of over­population
in these urban areas quickly became another problem
for the government. Clearly, another outlet was needed. The
opening of emigration in 1884 suited that purpose.
Many who left Japan during the early years of emigration
had every intention of returning. They thought they could work
in Hawaii and other places where wages were comparatively high,
save their money and then return home. This was similar to the
traditional practice of dekasegi, where an individual leaves home
to work for a short time to supplement the family's agricultural
income. But leaving one's village for another town or city was
not quite the same as going abroad. Whether money problems
or the enticements of new lands were responsible, many never
returned to Japan. Thus, in 40 years of immigration to Hawaii,
only about half of the workers ever came back.
The flow of laborers to Hawaii was largely in response
to a call for workers by sugar plantation owners. From 1884 to
1899 at least 80,000 Japanese contracted to work in Hawaii's sugar­cane
fields. Because earlier Chinese workers had been cheated
and otherwise maltreated by their Caucasian employers, the Meiji
government had extracted an agreement from Hawaiian officials
which standardized the contracts of Japanese going to the islands.
In return for three years of labor, a Japanese worker could expect
a minimum of $15 a month plus free transportation to and from
Japan. Although such prearranged agreements ended when
27
Hawaii became a u.s. territory in 1900, Japanese laborers con­tinued
to come on their own, largely because wages were twice
what could be earned in Japan. By 1908 almost 80,000 more
Japanese had made the trip.
The immigration to Hawaii was initially much greater than
to the continental United States. One reason was that Hawaii was
much closer to Japan, and, of course, the prearranged contracts
to work in Hawaii made it easier to go there. Also, there was much
anti-Asian feeling in the United States, which may have kept some
Japanese from wanting to travel to this country. For instance, the
Chinese Exclusion Law passed by Congress in 1882 had halted
neady all Chinese immigration into the country. Following that
law's passage, there were also riots and general violence directed
against the Chinese, causing many of them to disperse across the
U.S. or return to China.
By 1890, then, there were barely 2,000 Japanese residing
in the United States, many of whom were students. But beginning
in 1891, immigration increased to more than a thousand per year
for the next ten years. By 1900 more than 24,000 Japanese were
living in the U.S., and by 1910 this number was over 72,000. By
way of comparison, there was a record high of 132,000 Chinese
in the United States in 1882, the year of the Chinese Exclusion
Law. Eight years later, in 1890, their numbers had dropped to
107,000. Ten years after that, in 1900, there were less than 90,000.
By 1910 the Japanese actually outnumbered the Chinese by
10,000, there being fewer than 62,000 Chinese in all of the United
States, or less than half the number of 28 years before.
Ironically, the Chinese Exclusion Law which caused the
dramatic decrease in the Chinese-American population was a
major factor in the increase of the Japanese-American population.
Because jobs which the Chinese might otherwise have taken
needed to be filled, employers on the West Coast welcomed Japa­nese
immigration, even though American workers did not. Still,
the economy of the Pacific Coast area at the turn of the century
was expanding enormously, and there were jobs for almost every­one.
Once the Japanese discovered this, they came in increasing
numbers, not only from Japan but from Hawaii as well.
This flow of job seekers highlights the differences between
Japanese and much of European immigration to the United States.
28
In Japan there was no religious or political persecution as in
Europe, and although economic conditions and population pres­sures
in Japan affected immigration, they were never so severe
that leaving the country was almost a necessity, as was the case
in several European countries. Of course, many Japanese did go
abroad to improve their economic standing, but few left Japan
solely to escape intolerable circumstances. Thus, individuals of
all kinds - merchants, fIshermen, craftsmen and farmers - came
to the United States because of the opportunities awaiting them.
Many Japanese were spurred on to emigrate by talk of great
wealth. Stories of those who had been successful in the United
States were highly publicized in Japan. There was some exaggera­tion,
no doubt, but there was also no denying the testimonials
of men like George Shima, the "Potato King:' His rags-to-riches
story was probably known to every Japanese who ever considered
emigration. At the turn of the century, Shima transformed acres
of marshy delta land near Stockton, California, into fertile potato
fIelds, in the process making a fortune as well as a name for
himself. When he died in 1926 his estate was reportedly worth
$15 million.
This and other Horatio Alger-type stories gave many
Japanese the needed motivation to leave Japan. There were also
numerous pamphlets and books that promoted emigration and
: ~ ~
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GI~tt ...
-~: -/ t ~
",,!It
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Prom Tobei Zasshi (Magazine for
the American Bound). 1902
29
acted as guides to the New World. They had titles like Secrets
on Going to America; Come, Japanese!; Labor Handbook for America
and A Guide to Success Abroad. In the early 1900's several monthly
magazines, including Tobei Zasshi (Magazine for the American
Bound), were published to encourage and aid emigration. Further
impetus came when the Japanese began writing letters home,
encouraging friends and family to join them.
The means for getting to America were occasionally lack­ing,
even if the desire was not. In such cases, Japanese emigration
companies stepped in to help. The first emigration company was
established in 1894; by 1900 there were 11 such companies. These
organizations made travel arrangements for emigrants, advanced
them money for expenses and even promised jobs upon their
arrival. Although the system was abused on occasion by those
obviously more concerned with making money than with helping
emigrants, the services provided by these companies nonetheless
contributed to increased emigration from Japan in the early 1900's.
Indeed, the first years of the 20th century saw the peak
of Japanese immigration to the United States. In 1907 and 1908
nearly 10,000 Japanese a year arrived on the West Coast. But in
1909 barely 2,500 Japanese came, and only 1,600 of them were
classified as "immigrants:' And, in the years following, Japanese
immigration remained well below the 1907-1908 level. What had
happened to cause such a drastic decline? The answer can be
found in the actions of anti-Japanese groups, especially those
which were active in California.
As the Japanese population in the U.S. increased, numer­ous
grass roots organizations, such as the "Japanese and Korean
Exclusion League;' arose. These groups, using tactics similar to
those of the Chinese exclusion movement 20 years before, con­ducted
meetings and rallies to spread their doctrine of race hatred.
Boycotts against Japanese businesses and occasional violence
against Japanese individuals resulted.
The anti-Japanese movement was supported by local
politicians and editors, no doubt because it got votes and sold
newspapers. American labor on the West Coast also supported
the movement. They were afraid of competition from Japanese
immigrants, who were willing to work for lower wages. Although
initially unsuccessful at convincing the rest of the nation that a
30
law excluding further Japanese immigration was needed, these
groups continued to agitate against Japanese already in the United
States. In 1906, just a few months after the great San Francisco
earthquake and fire, anti-Japanese forces finally were able to let
loose with some earthshaking action of their own, sending shock
waves to both Washington and Tokyo.
On October 11, 1906, the San Francisco Board of Educa­tion
passed a resolution stating that the 93 Japanese children of
grammar school age in the city were required to attend the school
set aside for Chinese children. Unlike the Chinese, however, the
Japanese were scattered throughout the city, making it impossible
for some to switch schools. Also, the Japanese in America were
protected by their home government. This was believed to be
necessary since Japanese born outside the United States remained
Japanese citizens because of the U.S. law passed in 1790 denying
everyone but "free whites" American citizenship. When the San
Francisco Board of Education took its action, then, a furor arose
in Japan. National leaders in America were surprised by this
strong reaction to what was thought to be a minor issue. But when
officials in Washington moved to force the local authorities in San
Francisco to rescind their order, they found that there were strong
feelings in California as well, and that the school issue was just
the tip of the iceberg. What many Californians really wanted was
a halt, or at least a decrease, in Japanese immigration.
Both Washington and Tokyo wished to avoid open con­frontation
over the school board's actions. Yet it would be difficult
for any of the parties involved to back down, since public opinion
on both sides of the Pacific was adamant. Following diplomatic
negotiations, however, a compromise solution was reached. For
its part, Japan agreed to stop issuing passports to "laborers" trav­eling
to the United States. Japanese who were not considered
laborers were exempt. In return, the Japanese children in San
Francisco were allowed to attend their normal schools. This 1908
understanding became known as the "Gentlemen's Agreement;'
and it silenced, at least temporarily, the anti-Japanese voices on
the West Coast.
Over the next decade and a half, Japanese students, busi­nessmen
and other "nonlaborers" continued to come to the U.S.,
as did the families of those already in the country. But as immi-
31
fir
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Mrs. Mota Kobayashi's passport, issued in 1913
gration once again increased, so did popular sentiment for shutting
off all immigration from Japan, During this period various state
legislatures passed laws discriminating against Asians in areas
such as land leasing and ownership, But the most drastic action
came from the United States Congress, With its passage of the
Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 - unofficially known among Japanese
as the Japanese Exclusion Act - all Japanese immigration to the
United States came to a halt, It would not resume again until well
after World War II.
Although the 1924 federal law barred further immigration
of Japanese, more than 100,000 had already made the United
States their home, This number is small compared with European
immigration, yet at that time there were more Japanese in the
country than any other Asian group. The vast majority of these
Japanese lived on the West Coast, although there were minor con­centrations
in other states, most notably in Utah, Colorado, Idaho
and New York. But there were Japanese scattered throughout the
rest of the country as well. One state which became a focal point
for many was Texas,
The earliest Japanese Texans were recorded by the 1890
census. There were only three in the whole state, one each in
32
Cameron, Dallas and Tarrant counties. The Dallas County man
was Mr. Kinta Tsukahara, a farmer who had come to the U.S.
in 1885, just a year after general emigration was allowed by the
Meiji government. He was joined in 1900 by his brother, Kinya,
who earned his medical degree at Baylor University and then
practiced in Dallas. This pattern, where an immigrant was fol­lowed
by family members, was common, reflecting the close-knit
nature of the Japanese family as well as the difficulty of raising
money for travel expenses for more than one person at a time.
Generally, only if a family pooled its resources could enough
money be raised to send an individual abroad. That person then
had the responsibility of helping others in the family.
As in all immigration the promise of opportunity abroad
was not always fulfilled. Many Japanese who came to Texas stayed
a short while, then moved on. This was perhaps the case with
a bamboo craftsman named Thuchiya. One of the earliest Japanese
in Texas, Mr. Tsuchiya lived in El Paso about 1885. Beyond that,
little is known except that there was no mention of Japanese living
in El Paso in the 1890 census. Whether Mr. Tsuchiya moved in
the interim or was overlooked by census takers is unknown.
Much more is known about a man named "Tom Brown"
Okasaki. His real name was Tsunekichi Okasaki, but because of
the difficulty in pronouncing his first name, he was more com­monly
called Tom Brown. It was not unusual in those days for
Japanese to arbitrarily choose an English first name for use with
American friends. It was preferable, of course, to find a name
that sounded like one's Japanese name. Thus, Tomoyuki easily
became Tom, and Jiroo became Jerry. Also, a name like Kiyoaki
might be shortened to Kay, but it would certainly take much
imagination to derive Tom Brown from Thunekichi.
Whatever the story behind his name, Tom Brown Okasaki
became a successful restaurateur in Houston around the turn of
the century. He arrived in the United States in the 1890's from
his home prefecture of Okayama. He then opened an establish­ment
named the Japanese Restaurant, located at 1111 Congress
Avenue in downtown Houston. Despite its name, Okasaki's Japa­nese
Restaurant served mainly American food. The restaurant
enjoyed considerable success, possibly because of its reasonable
prices-from 10 to 25 cents for a full dinner.
33
Business prospered for Tom Brown, and by 1911 he
opened the Japanese Art Store at 715 Main, while across the street
Ibm Brown Okasaki's Japanese Art Store in Houston, c. 1911
and down the block, he was a partner in the Japan Art and Tea
Company. Two men, Junzo Fujino and Yoshimatsu Konishi, were
listed with Tom Brown in connection with this company as "deal­ers
in Japanese art goods and tea:' Misfortune intervened, though,
when one of Tom Browns art stores burned down after a building
next door caught fire. Undaunted, Okasaki persevered and soon
opened two more dining establishments in addition to the already
popular Japanese Restaurant. One was the Eagle Cafe, described
in the city directory as a "chop suey parlor:'
During this period of the early 1900's, Tom Brown was
active in Houston's Japanese community. From 1900 to 1910 the
number of Japanese in 1exas had grown from 13 to 340, with quite
a few living in or around Houston and Harris County. Okasaki's
restaurant served as a gathering place for many of these Japanese,
especially for traditional celebrations such as New Year's Day and
34
the Emperor's Birthday. As a leader in the Japanese community,
Tom Brown was also obliged to help fellow immigrants who were
in need. Thus, he often employed Japanese newcomers to the area
as waiters, dishwashers and cooks in his restaurants.
About 1907 Tom Brown even dabbled in rice farming at
two locations outside Houston. He persuaded a friend, Kunie­mon
Sando, who was also from Okayama Prefecture, to leave
Japan to manage one of his Texas rice farms. At the age of 23
Sando was a former soldier, who had served in Manchuria during
the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). After this war, which Japan
won, many soldiers returned to Japan to fmd few jobs available.
Thus, when Sando was given a chance to come to Texas, he took
it. But Okasaki's rice venture was a complete failure, with unusu­ally
wet weather flooding the fields and ruining the crops. After
this setback Sando helped Tom Brown in his restaurant business
and later opened his own cafe.
Another man who worked for Tom Brown was Otsukichi
Matsumoto, who, in 1898 at the age of 18, left his home village
of Yanai to work in the sugar fields of Hawaii. Like so many other
Japanese, he later moved to San Francisco, where he worked as
~ ~, . .>=.. ...... J.. Otsukichi Matsumoto
35
a waiter and then as a valet for an American coloneL By saving
his money he was able to open a restaurant with two friends from
Yanai. But several years later the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
and fire destroyed their business. When Tom Brown heard of
Matsumotds plight, he invited him to Houston to help him with
his own restaurant business.
Matsumoto worked for Tom Brown Okasaki until after
World War I, at which time Tom Brown returned to Japan. Mat­sumoto
and two other employees took over the chain of restau­rants.
Because business had been good during the war, Tom
Brown was able to buy a small hotel in Japan where he lived out
the rest of his life. Whether he had always planned on returning
to his homeland is not clear, but certainly many Japanese in the
United States had that very dream.
Other Japanese came to Texas simply as visitors. One such
man, geographer and writer Professor Shigetaka (Juko) Shiga,
traveled to San Antonio in November 1914 to pay tribute to the
heroes of the Alamo. Dr. Shiga had discovered in the Alamo
defenders the same qualities of selfless courage and loyalty unto
death that he so admired in the 16th century heroes of the Battle
"Courage is not the
monopoly of either the West ~
or the East. You need not
wonder, then, if I drink a ~<
toast to your memory!" ~ .
{From Shiga's poem -
inscribed on the monument. J
36
of Nagashino in his home province. Each group fought bravely
against overwhelming odds. Like James Bonham, Nagashino
warrior Suneemon Torii risked his life to get help, then returned
to die with his comrades.
So moved was Shiga by these parallels that he decided
to erect similar stone markers in both America and Japan to honor
the heroes. He composed a poem recalling their valor and had
it engraved on granite slabs found near the grave of Torii, japan's
Bonham. During his visit to the Alamo in 1914, Dr. Shiga pre­sented
one stone monument to the Daughters of the Republic
of Texas. It still stands in the Alamo convent courtyard. He placed
the second marker in his home town of Okazaki near Nagashino.
At the dedication ceremony of the monument at the
Alamo, Shiga received several gifts. Among these were acorns
from the Alamo live oak trees which he was asked to plant at
the Nagashino battle site. Dr. Shiga accepted with these words:
"1 shall tell the people of Japan these acorns came from the citizens
of San Antonio and the great state of Texas, and I shall strive to
make my people better understand the friendliness, generosity
and hospitality of the inhabitants of far-off America:'
The story of the Japanese monument and its twin in
Okazaki gradually faded from public memory, but since the nrst
San Antonio-Japan Week in 1984 Dr. Noritsugu Mukai of Boston
and Dr. Margit Nagy, CDP, of the Japan America Society of San
Antonio have been working with Dr. Shiga's family and the
Daughters of the Republic of Texas to revive interest in the monu­ment.
This joint effort resulted in the donation of a portrait of
Dr. Shiga by his son to the DRT. The Junior Ambassadors Friend­ship
Mission from Musashino City presented the portrait during
a rededication of friendship ceremony in August 1986. That event
marked the beginning of a cooperative project between Texans
and Japanese to make the monument better known.
Professor Shiga was certainly one of the nrst Japanese
"tourists" to visit the Alamo. But, as early as 1885, Richard B.
Hubbard, governor of Texas from December 1876 to January 1879,
was no doubt the nrst Texan to tour the Japanese countryside,
visiting some of japan's more important temples and shrines.
Governor Hubbard obtained his nrst-hand knowledge of Japan
during a nve-year term from 1885 to 1890 as U.S. Minister Pleni-
37
potentiary to Japan. Several of Hubbard's grandchildren were born
in Japan; thus, when the family moved back to Tyler in 1890,
Hubbard's grandchildren nearly doubled the total of three Japa­nese-
born individuals reported living in Texas by the 1890 census.
38
three
Tte first real impact of Japanese immigration in Texas was
in rice farming. In 1902 there were no Japanese farms in
Texas, but within six years there were at least 30 separate
attempts by Japanese to grow rice in scattered areas of the state.
In 1908 the value of the rice crop grown by Japanese Texans was
nearly $250,000. Of the 312 Japanese living in Texas in 1910, prob­ably
80 percent or more were rice farmers. Most were young men
in their 20's and 30's who came straight from Japan specifically
to farm rice. What brought these people to Texas, and how did
they fare once they arrived?
In the early 1900's the rice industry in Texas was still in
its infancy. Rice cultivation first occurred in the state in the middle
of the 19th century. Large-scale irrigated production, however,
did not occur until the 1890's, when 8,500 acres of rice were
planted near Beaumont. Within a few years numerous rice farms
had spread to Houston and beyond.
Still, Texas rice production was well behind that of Loui­siana,
even though the potential in Texas was greater. The
Japanese consul general in New York, Sadatsuchi Uchida, realized
39
Sadatsuchi Uchida, consul
general in New York who
encouraged Japanese rice
farming in Texas
this as he traveled through Louisiana and southeastern Texas in
1902 on a fact-flllding tour of the American South. He foresaw
a great future for rice growing in Texas. During his visit Consul
Uchida was asked to speak at a meeting in Beaumont of the fledg­ling
Rice Growers' Association of America. He talked about Japa­nese
methods of rice cultivation and the possibility of Japanese
farmers immigrating to the area. The latter idea was well received,
and a resolution was passed at the meeting offering an open invi­tation
to Japanese to come.
When Uchida later visited Houston he was further encour­aged
by representatives from the Houston Chamber of Com­merce,
the Texas governor's office and the Southern Pacinc Rail­road.
They wanted to let the consul general know that Japanese
were quite welcome in Texas. Because there were scarcely three
million people in the state, migration meant development and
prosperity. After his trip to Texas, then, Consul Uchida filed a
glowing report describing Texas land and its potential to Japan's
Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce.
At the turn of the century, rice farming was an impor­tant
and respected occupation in Japan. Yet a dense population
and limited space forced land prices so high that many tenant
farmers knew they could never own land. Those who did have
40
land generally owned tiny frelds scattered in different places, a
real hindrance to large-scale agriculture. Although Japan is rough­ly
the size of California, less than 16 percent of its land can be
used for farming. The rest is mainly mountainous and too steep
to till. This means that in Japan in 1903 there were 45,000,000
people subsisting on cultivated land one-third the size of Illinois.
In 1904 more than 80 percent of the agricultural families in Japan
worked land which averaged less than four acres; more than half
of them worked land which averaged less than two acres in size.
Thus, news that there was vast prairie land suitable for
rice farming in southeast Texas spread fast. Several Tokyo news­papers
printed parts of Uchida's report, which became a popular
topic for discussion. For the next six or seven years until the
Gentlemen's Agreement, interest among the Japanese was kept
high by a succession of books, pamphlets and magazine articles,
the latter often containing "open letters" to the public from Japa­nese
in Texas. Consul General Uchida himself wrote several
magazine articles encouraging Japanese to settle in Texas.
Working Texas rice fzelds
The reaction from Japan was immediate, if somewhat
inauspicious. In 1903, the year following Uchida's visit, two rice-
41
farming ventures were attempted in Texas. Both failed. In the
vicinity of Port Lavaca, Junzo Fujino and four colleagues leased
90 acres near the Gulf and began farming. Unfortunately, a dam
broke and allowed salt water into the fields, ruining the crop.
Despite his disappointment, Fujino remained in Texas, working
on various Japanese-owned farms. He was the same Junzo Fujino
who later became a partner of Houston entrepreneur Tom Brown
Okasaki in the Japan Art and Tea Company. To the west, on the
Mexican border in Del Rio, two more Japanese, Hosho and Kana­me
Inoue, leased some land to farm rice in 1903. They hired local
help to work the fields but were no more successful than Fujino
and his group.
Later that year many more Japanese arrived in Texas to
start rice projects. One of the most famous of this group was Seito
Saibara, a man who envisioned a Texas rice colony of 1,500
Japanese or more. How Saibara came to dream such a dream is
the story of a man driven by the times in which he lived and
by his own belief in what he had to do.
Seito Saibara was born in 1861 in the small village of
Izuma on Shikoku, one of the four main islands which compose
Japan. In the United States the American Civil War was just
beginning. In Japan there was less violent turmoil, characteristic
of the period following Admiral Perry's arrival in 1853. In 1868,
when Saibara was only seven years old, the Meiji Restoration
occurred, setting a new course for the country.
One of the strongest allies of the powerful Satsuma and
Choshu clans, which backed the Meiji Restoration, was the Tosa
clan to which Seito Saibara belonged. Many Tosa members were
rewarded for their support of the restoration with important
political positions in the new government. Others were given
preferential treatment in their business enterprises. One Tosa
member founded the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Company, which
later became famous as the manufacturer of the Zero, the Japa­nese
fighter plane widely used during World War II.
Harmony within the government, however, did not last
long. One Tosa official in particular felt that his views were being
ignored by the more conservative Choshu and Satsuma statesmen.
This man was Taisuke Itagaki. In 1873 he and his followers
resigned from the government and formed a political group to
42
spread their liberal ideas and ideals. They called themselves
Risshisha, or the Society of Free Thinkers. As its name implies,
Risshisha represented a diverse, if odd, mixture of thinking. Its
membership supported the varied causes of democratic reform,
aggressive nationalism and the need for a strong emperor. Ris­shisha's
members included democratic idealists, discontented
samurai and disappointed office seekers. And as in any social
reform movement, there were also those in the group willing to
use force to draw attention to their views.
It was this environment that 16-year-old Seito Saibara
entered when he traveled to Kochi, the old capital of the Tosa
clan and the new capital of Kochi Prefecture, to attend the Ris­shisha
English School established by the society. There he not
only studied English, but was briefly exposed to the works of
foreign intellectuals such as Spencer, Mill, Rousseau, Bentham
and Smith. But before his education could proceed very far, the
revolt of ex-samurai known as the Satsuma Rebellion broke out
.on Kyushu, another of the four main Japanese islands. Sympathy
for this rebellion among Risshisha members ran high, causing
them to organize a similar rebellion. The plan, however, was
discovered, and numerous men, including Seito Saibara, were
arrested. Fortunately for Saibara, he was released a short time
later with several others because of their youth.
Seito Saibara
43
This incident acted as Saibara's political baptism of fire.
By the time he was 19, Seito was making speeches against the
Meiji government. Although the Meiji Restoration had led to vast
reforms throughout Japan, Seito Saibara and his friends stressed
the need for even more reform. They also felt that Japan had much
to learn from the West, and they thus advocated increased contact
with Western nations.
Although Saibara was involved in politics, he was also
working toward his law degree. After the aborted rebellion plot,
he followed Itagaki to Tokyo and entered Shigematsu Law School.
Later he married Motoko Yamawaki from his home prefecture
of Kochi, and in 1884 she bore him a son, Kiyoaki. In 1886 Seito
was one of only 11 people in Japan who were admitted to the
bar. He and his family then returned to the town of Kochi where
he wanted to open a law practice.
Family life, however, did not keep Seito Saibara out of con­troversy.
Shortly after he arrived in Kochi, he became embroiled
in an alleged plot to assassinate the prefecture's conservative
governor, who was an appointee of the Meiji government. As a
result, Saibara was again arrested. During the next year he took
his case to the Kochi Prefectural Court, the Osaka Court of Appeal,
the Hiroshima Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Tokyo.
The charges against him were finally dropped for lack of evidence.
When he returned to Kochi following the appeal process, Saibara
was greeted as a political martyr. The rigors of the various trials
and the frequent traveling had affected Saibara's health, but with
rest he was soon well and active.
In the several years following this episode, Seito Saibara
emerged as a local leader. His old friend Itagaki was also busy,
having formed the Japanese Liberal Party in anticipation of the
first parliamentary elections in Japan, to be held in 1890. Saibara
campaigned for the four Liberal Party candidates from Kochi, all
of whom were elected to the new parliament. With those elections
Japan officially became a constitutional monarchy.
A year later, in 1891, Saibara and his family moved to
Japan's second largest city, Osaka, where Seito practiced law at
Osaka District Court. He continued his political activities by
making speeches and representing his home prefecture at Liberal
44
Party gatherings. In 1898, at the age of 37, Saibara ran for and
was elected to the Japanese House of Representatives.
Seito Saibara's interests, though, were not limited to law
and politics. Like a few others in Japan, he was intrigued by the
religious beliefs of the West. As is the case today, very few
Japanese were Christians; most were Buddhists, Shintoists or
both. Saibara nonetheless decided to join the Tamon Congrega­tional
Church of Kobe. His conversion to Christianity set in motion
a chain of events which ultimately led him to Texas.
In July of 1899, shortly after joining the Tamon Congrega­tional
Church of Kobe, Saibara was asked to serve as the fourth
president of Kyotds Doshisha University, a Christian college built
with money raised by the Congregational Church in the United
States. While he was president, Saibara continued to serve in the
parliament, where he became known as a staunch defender of
the rights of Japanese Christians and Christian churches in Japan.
Several years later, in 1902 just before his frrst term in the House
of Representatives was to expire, Seito Saibara made a momentous
decision. He would leave Japan for Connecticut and study at the
Hartford Theological Seminary. Saibara's motives for the move
are not entirely clear. Why would he leave the country just when
his political career and influence were on the rise? He was certain
to be reelected to the Japanese Parliament in the next elections.
One possibility is that he simply may have been weary of the
life of a politician. Or perhaps because of his new Christian faith,
he wanted to remove himself from the compromises and corrup­tions
of political life. Some say he decided to study theology
because he had been criticized as president of Doshisha Univer­sity
for his lack of formal religious training. For whatever reason,
Saibara left Japan on April 7, 1902.
Seito Saibara's journey was actually a combination of offi­cial
and private business, since he was one of two delegates
representing the Japanese House of Representatives at the corona­tion
of King Edward VII in London, England. As an official repre­sentative,
Saibara was entitled to travel on the Japanese battleship
Takasago. Many friends and relatives, including his wife, Taiko,
whom he had married after his frrst wife's death, and his son,
Kiyoaki, were at the dock to see Saibara off on his journey.
45
Consul General
Sadatsuchi Uchida
After his brief visit to England, Saibara arrived on the East
Coast of the United States and began his theological studies at
Hartford, where he remained for a year. During this time he met
and befriended Consul General Uchida. Their conversations no
doubt touched upon the possibility of establishing rice colonies
in Texas. As an entry in his journal reveals, Saibara was seriously
considering making the United States his permanent home:
June 7, 1903 - All day long my mind was occupied by the
thought of whether I should start the enterprise of the immi­gration
of Japanese nationalities or not in North America. I
wrote a letter of inquiry to Mr. Tamaki [then in New York
City] in order to obtain the report of the investigation of
Consul Uchida.
Within the month Saibara made his decision. He would
remain in the United States as an immigrant. But because it took
three weeks for a letter to reach Japan and three weeks for a reply,
Saibara had to wait to discover how his wife and son felt about
joining him in America. While he waited Saibara weighed the
advantages of settling in one part of the United States as opposed
to another. As an exuberant entry in his journal indicates, he had
narrowed the possibilities down to two states:
June 20, 1903 - Sent a detailed letter to Mr. Kiyoka Aki, Kochi
Prefecture, concerning my friends' future conduct in life, the
agriculture of the United States in general, and actual condi­tions
in the two states of Texas and California. Spent three
to four days in thinking about and writing plans for this letter.
46
Probably this was the greatest letter I've ever written . ..
After mailing it my feeling of satisfaction was immense.
Saibara's ultimate decision to move to Texas rather than to
California reflected his pioneering spirit. Since most Japanese
immigrants were settling on the West Coast, the idea of estab­lishing
a Japanese colony in Texas was perhaps a little more
exciting or daring to him. Also important to Saibara was the
influence of Consul General Uchida, whose enthusiasm for Texas
was linked to Japan's need for rice. At that time much of japan's
rice was being imported from Korea and Taiwan. With a growing
population Japan was certain to need even more rice in the future,
and a prosperous colony in Texas could possibly be one source
of supply.
In order to have a colony at all, however, there fIrst had
to be "colonists;' Japanese willing to leave Japan for the promise
of something better in the United States. Saibara knew it might
be hard to convince people to join him, so in the early summer
months of 1903, he put great effort into writing letters to relatives
and friends, urging them all to come. For those who could not
purchase land immediately-the case with a majority of those
who eventually came-Saibara promised work at a salary of $250
per year plus board. Any wife accompanying her husband was
offered $90 a year.
July passed, and Saibara still had received no reply from
his wife concerning the Texas venture. When the letter finally
came a happy Saibara wrote in his journal:
August 2, 1903 - From Taiko the answer that she has decided
to come to the United States arrived. I was much relieved
and felt I had attained more courage. Kiyoaki said that if he
passed the school entrance exams, he would like to remain
in Japan.
Seito Saibara had convinced his wife, but his son, Kiyoaki,
who was 18 and a recent graduate from high school, had other
plans. Because he very much wanted to continue his education,
Kiyoaki had already taken rigorous competitive examinations for
entrance into Daishichi Gakko (the Seventh Higher School). The
results had not been posted yet, but it made no real difference.
The day after receiving the letter from his wife and son, Seito
exercised his authority as a father and wrote back saying unequiv-
47
ocally that both Taiko and Kiyoaki should begin preparations for
the trip to Texas.
Seito himself spent the next ten days preparing to leave
Hartford. His journal indicates he was obviously forewarned
about mosquitoes and August weather in Houston:
... Bought a summer suit for $5.50 and a straw hat for $1.48 .
. . . Bought a mosquito net [for sleeping] for $0.45.
Saibara also spent time procuring letters of introduction, including
one from the president of Hartford Seminary. Finally on August
12th he bade farewell to his friends in Hartford and traveled to
New York.
After a week of sightseeing and visiting with Consul
General Uchida and others in New York, Saibara set sail for Texas
orr August 19, 1903, on the steamship Proteus. Four days later
the ship rounded the tip of Florida, and on the morning of the
sixth day at three dclock, Saibara was awake to see the mouth
of the Mississippi River come into view. While traveling up the
river, he noted what seemed like endless fields of rice and sweet
potatoes. At eleven that morning the Proteus docked at the port
of New Orleans.
Saibara's journey continued that evening when he boarded
a sleeping car at the railway station. At six the following morning
Saibara awoke and was met by his first views of Texas scenery.
He was pleased to see fields full of crops.
Harvesttime on the coastal prairie
48
At 10 a.m. the train pulled into the Houston station, where
Saibara was met by Hosho and Kaname Inoue, the two Japanese
whose Del Rio rice venture had failed earlier that year. They were
in town to raise money to finance another attempt. With them
was Oswald Wilson, a gentleman who would serve as Saibara's
initial guide in Houston. Before the day was over, Wilson had
introduced Saibara to numerous bank presidents, the postmaster,
the editors and staffs of newspapers, and the officers of local
business organizations.
The following day Saibara was introduced to TJ Ander­son,
colonization agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad, which
owned land for sale in the area. The railroad company was
especially interested in large colonizing efforts such as Saibara's,
since they would inevitably bring more business for the company.
To speed Saibara's search for a suitable farm site, Anderson pro­vided
him with a complimentary pass for free rail service. With
the help of this pass, over the next month and a half Saibara
crisscrossed the southeastern gulf coastal area of Texas from Port
Lavaca in the south to Port Arthur in the east. He looked at land
near the communities of Wharton, El Campo, Ganado, Palacios
and Eagle Lake. Closer to Houston he inspected sites in Deer Park,
La Porte, Seabrook, League City, Webster and Barker.
In mid-September Consul General Uchida visited from
New York. Saibara showed him the more promising pieces of land,
including one tract of untilled prairie near Webster, a small town
halfway between Houston and Galveston. Its location on a railway
line was ideal, so Saibara entered into negotiations with the owner
to buy the land.
After two weeks a deal was struck for 304 acres at a price
of $5,750. Saibara had wired his family earlier for $2,000 to make
a down payment of almost $1,500 cash for the property, which
included the use of a house until he could build his own. The
balance of the payment for the land was due in six years. In these
and other financial arrangements, Saibara used a combination
of money from his family, from backers in Japan and from sup­porters
in the Houston community.
Less than three weeks before purchasing this land, Saibara
was joined in Houston by two men from Japan-Rihei and
Toraichi Onishi. Rihei, a journalist for the fiji Shimpo, a Tokyo
49
Rihei Onishi Toraichi Onishi
daily newspaper, had read Consul General Uchida's report on
Texas rice farming. He convinced his wealthy wine-merchant
cousin, Toraichi, to travel to Houston with him to investigate the
situation. They liked what they found, so they bought about 300
acres of land near Saibara's new place. Although it cost $1,700
more than Saibara's land, the Onishi property included a barn
and a house, and 200 acres of the land was already cleared. Still
another man with capital to invest was Shotaro Nishimura, a tea
merchant from Yokohama. He too purchased about 300 acres of
land near Webster.
Together Nishimura, Saibara and the Onishis formed the
nucleus of what all four hoped would become a large Japanese
colony of rice farmers. Indeed, at the time the future looked
extremely bright. There was adequate capital and good, flat
farmland, as well as able-bodied workers who would soon be on
their way from Japan. Saibara's dream of a colony of 1,500 Japa­nese
in the Houston area seemed well within reach.
On October 9th Rihei Onishi left Houston to guide a small
group of immigrants from Japan to Texas. Meanwhile his cousin,
Toraichi, Saibara and several Japanese who had since arrived in
Texas began work on the three Japanese-owned farms. Land was
surveyed and fences put up. Saibara arranged for the construction
of his house, and to provide for the irrigation of crops he went
50
Seito Saibara 's house near Webster
to the considerable expense of digging a 600-foot well. Saibara
also planted a garden using seeds others had brought from Japan.
Included were green vegetable seeds for shungiku, mana, hojona
and taina, all of which are used in Japanese cooking. He also
sowed varieties of daikon (horseradish), kabu (turnips) and negi
(a kind of leek) . When farm equipment arrived plowing began,
and slowly the farms took shape.
At the end of the year, as was the custom in Japan, there
was much gift giving among the Japanese. Saibara's journal, for
Saibara's water well
51
example, recorded a visit by Tom Brown Okasaki, who brought
with him a large amount of beef from his restaurant as a present.
Another Japanese custom was that of paying off one's debts by
year's end. Thus Saibara's December 31st journal entry reads, "Paid
[Toraichi] Onishi all past-due money accounts:' On the following
day, the nrst day of the 37th year of the reign of Emperor Meiji
(1904), Saibara wrote, "It was peaceful. Nothing happened:'
Halfway across the world at the port of Yokohama in
Japan, life was far from uneventful. Rihei Onishi and a group
of 15 colonists were boarding the appropriately named Japanese
steamship, America Maru. (The word Maru follows the name of
most Japanese ships but has no translatable meaning.)
Just as New Year's Day symbolizes an end to an old year
and the beginning of a new one, these emigrants were saying
good-bye to an old life in Japan while looking ahead to an uncer­tain
new one in the United States. Reasons for taking this step
varied greatly, but at least one young 18-year-old, Kiyoaki Saibara,
had his doubts about the whole matter. Kiyoaki had wanted to
study engineering in Japan and later launch a career in ship­building.
He had even passed his entrance exams, but his father
had already ordered him to come to Texas with his mother. Being
a good son, he obeyed, even though he later recalled that he "did
not think very much of the idea:' Thus on a cold but sunny New
Year's Day as the America Maru steamed eastward, Kiyoaki
Saibara stood on the ship's windswept deck and watched the last
outlines of Japan slowly disappear behind the horizon.
The trip across the Pacinc took more than two weeks. In
San Francisco, where the ship docked, the group was met by Seito
Saibara, who was surely anxious to see his family after a separa­tion
of nearly two years. Included among the 16 travelers were
Seito's wife and some of their friends and relatives. Tadao Yasui
and his wife were two such friends. Tadao was a technical expert
from an agricultural experiment station on the northern Japanese
island of Hokkaido. At this station he and another colleague, who
was already in Texas, had experimented in large-scale rice grow­ing.
Their expertise would be highly valued in the coming months.
In addition to Saibara's friends and relatives, Rihei Onishi had
brought his own wife, Hisa Nakahata, and their daughter, May,
as well as four workers to help on his farm .
52
First picture taken in the Us. of the Onishis and friends, 1904
Front row, right to left: Toraichi, Rihei with May on his lap,
Rihei's wife. Hisa Nakahata; back, right: Eijiro Onishi Kondo
After a few days of rest in San Francisco, the party boarded
a train for Texas. Four days later on January 24th they arrived
in Webster. Because Seito Saibara's journal ends here, there are
no accurate accounts of the colonists' impressions of their new
home. But since all were used to the lush vegetation and moun­tainous
countryside of Japan, there must have been a moment
of shock as they viewed the miles of flat prairie for the nrst time.
The monotony of the landscape, however, was also its best
feature, at least for farming. The lack of trees and rocks meant
the flat ground could be cleared quickly; using a gangplow and
four mules, an individual could easily cultivate four acres a day.
So even though there were probably no more than 30 adults to
work the three farms owned by Saibara, Onishi and Nishimura,
the colony prospered the nrst year.
Shinriki, or God Power rice, was planted and grown by
the Japanese colonists. Brought from Japan by Rihei Onishi, this
short-grained rice was chosen because of its hearty nature. In
the rich Texas soil it also proved quite proline. At harvest time
Saibara's crop yielded from two to three times the amount of rice
53
Saibara rice farm near Webster, c. 1904; Kiyoaki Saibara is fourth from left.
per acre than was normal for other Texas farms, which grew the
more common long-grained variety of Honduras rice. The presi­dent
of the Standard Milling Company of Houston, which bought
Saibara's rice, was so pleased with its quality that he sold it as
seed rice to other farmers.
In 1904 there were also other attempts to farm rice by
Japanese in Texas. Most were individual efforts or partnerships
on smaller-sized farms, although some were actually larger than
the Saibara, Onishi or Nishimura farms taken alone. None at the
time, however, approached the size of these three farms together.
One of the smaller farms was owned by 20-year-old Junzo Hashi­moto
of Osaka. Hashimoto was Consul General Uchida's brother­in-
law and had been persuaded by him to buy 160 acres of land
near Garwood, a town west of Houston in Colorado County.
Hashimoto hired local help, and, like Saibara, he recorded fan­tastic
yields the first year. In 1908 Hashimoto moved closer to
the coast near Bay City in Matagorda County, where he leased
500 acres of land with two Japanese partners. The three hired
four other Japanese to help run the farm.
While the initial spark for Japanese immigration to Texas
came from Consul General Uchida's 1902 report, other publica­tions
soon lent fuel to the fire. In 1903 Daijiro Yoshimura, author
of at least three self-help books for Japanese wanting to move
54
to the United States, wrote another book detailing the state of
rice culture in Texas. As if convinced by his own words, Yoshi­mura
and a friend, Matsutaro Asai, formed an organization and
traveled to Texas in the spring of 1904. Their organization, known
as the Kaigai Kigyo Doshi Kai, or the Society of the Friends of
Overseas Enterprises, included 11 other men from Japan. The
group settled on land near League City, which is very close to
Webster. The colony failed after only a year, reportedly because
of dissension among members. Yoshimura nonetheless had
enough nrsthand information to return to Japan and write a sequel
to his nrst book on Texas rice farming.
Another Japanese writer who came to Texas in 1904 was
Sen Katayama. In 1896, after spending 12 years in the United
States as a student and worker, Katayama returned to Japan. There
he wrote and lectured extensively, encouraging his fellow Japa­nese
to emigrate to the U.S. He was also involved in the budding
Japanese socialist and labor movement, and has since been
referred to as the "Father of Asian Communism:'
Beginning in 1901 Katayama wrote a series of three short
guides for students and others wishing to live in the United States.
In 1902 he organized the Tobei Kyokai, or the America Bound
Association, which provided information and assistance for poten­tial
emigrants. Finally in 1904, after his interest was aroused by
reports coming from Japanese farmers in Texas, Sen Katayama
decided to see for himself what Texas was really like.
He arrived in Houston on February 14, 1904. He liked the
area and decided to stay. After some searching he bought 160
acres near the farm of Junzo Hashimoto outside Garwood. Kata­yama's
money for this purchase came from a longtime friend and
benefactor in Japan, Seikichi Iwasaki, a relative of Katayama's
recently deceased wife. He had encouraged Katayama to travel
to Texas and had even offered to care for the widower's two chil­dren.
Iwasaki hoped that, by being separated from his socialist
friends in Japan, Katayama would lose interest in their causes.
This was a vain wish, however, for Katayama soon began attend­ing
labor union and socialist meetings in the south of Texas. Even
on the trip to Texas, he had stopped in San Francisco to help
organize the Japanese Socialist Association for the many immi­grants
in that city.
55
Sen Katayama, often
called the "Father
of Asian Communism"
In May of 1904 Katayama traveled to Chicago to attend
the American Socialist Party's national convention. In August of
the same year he went to Amsterdam, where he denounced the
Russo-Japanese War in an address before the Sixth Congress of
the Second International. He created a further stir by shaking
hands with the Russian delegate to the congress.
These actions did not endear him to his Japanese neigh­bors
in Garwood. Hashimoto in particular was no doubt upset,
since his brother-in-law represented the Meiji government as
consul general in New York. Also the war with Russia was quite
popular among Japanese everywhere, while Katayama's anti-war
stance was not. Thus when he returned to Texas Katayama did
not settle on his farm in Garwood. The details of what happened
are not clear, but Katayama later wrote that a Japanese farmer
in Garwood told him that the water supply situation there was
not good. Acting on the farmer's advice, Katayama resettled on
a quarter section of land in the community of Aldine, north of
Houston. He later discovered, however, that this same farmer had
had a very successful harvest, and he therefore assumed that the
warning about the water had been a ruse to get him to move.
Whether urged or tricked to leave Garwood, Katayama
continued his promotion of labor-unionism and socialism from
his farm in Aldine. In an interview with a Japanese journalist,
Katayama claimed he was simply resting on his farm, having
become weary from his seven years in Japan fighting for socialist
56
causes. But during the next winter he found time to write a book,
Socialist Parties of the World. He also wrote about his Texas expe­riences
for Japanese newspapers and for some of the socialist­oriented
emigration magazines in Japan, such as Tobei Zasshi
(Magazine for the American Bound).
When spring of 1905 arrived, however, Katayama was
ready to try his hand at farming rice. With the help of three
younger Japanese men - Katayama was then 46 years old - 50
acres of rice were planted. Unfortunately, unusually hot and dry
weather ruined the crop. Katayama blamed not only the weather,
but also his own inexperience and his poor choice of land.
Although his fortunes were temporarily down, Katayama's
commitment to colonizing the area with Japanese was stronger
than ever. After his crop failed he went to Houston and worked
in Tom Brown Okasaki's restaurant as cook and waiter (before
Tom Brown's expansion into the tea and art goods business and
also before his ill-fated rice venture of 1907).
Tom Brown and Katayama soon became fast friends, and
they eventually became partners in a plan to bring 200 families
from Japan to form a colony of truck farmers. Toward this goal
Tom Brown purchased more than 10,000 acres of land 100 miles
south of San Antonio in the two counties of Live Oak and McMul­len,
paying more than $6,000 for the property. Where he obtained
such large amounts of money is not known, but an offer by Tom
Brown, recorded in Saibara's journal, to lend Saibara $5,000 any
time he needed it was apparently no idle boast.
The next step in Katayama and Tom Brown's colonization
plan required returning to Japan, which they did in January 1906.
Katayama received the support of his friend Iwasaki, who raised
$100,000 for the project. Iwasaki also formed the Nippon Kono
Kabushiki Kaisha, or the Japan Farming Company, which would
handle the business end of the South Texas colony. Tom Brown's
task in Japan was to recruit farmers. Although he had difficulty
doing so, Tom Brown Okasaki finally signed up 30 families.
In the meantime Katayama was into his old socialist activ­ities.
He attended an important meeting of Japanese socialists in
Tokyo, and later he participated in a large demonstration against
increased fares on Tokyo's streetcars. His behavior displeased
Iwasaki greatly, and he asked Katayama to return immediately
57
to Texas. Using the threat of withdrawal of his support for the
farming project, Iwasaki also made Katayama promise to cease
all activities as a socialist. Katayama seemed willing to do this,
in part because of a growing split within the Japanese socialist
movement. Katayama's moderate approach of working within the
parliamentary system was being challenged by much more radical
views. But perhaps even more important to Katayama was his
commitment and belief in the South Texas farm project. So in
July of 1906 Katayama returned to Texas.
At this point there are two interpretations of what fol­lowed.
One historian claims that Tom Brown Okasaki's intentions
had always been dishonorable and that he was actually a real
estate swindler. Thus it is alleged that, after securing $500 toward
the purchase of land in Texas from each of 30 families, Tom Brown
returned to the United States, leaving those families in Japan.
A more probable and authoritative account of this episode, how­ever,
is that Tom Brown actually did bring the 30 families to
America. But, like Iwasaki, he did not approve of Katayama's
socialist activities. Furthermore, he was not happy with his sub­ordinate
position to Katayama in the Japan Farming Company.
He expressed these feelings to the 30 families and discussed alter­natives.
After some trouble with immigration authorities when
they disembarked in Seattle, Okasaki decided to release the
families from their contracts and allow them to go their separate
ways. He then returned alone to Texas in September 1906.
But there was another problem when Tom Brown arrived
back in Houston. Katayama had contacted his American socialist
friends in Texas and had asked them to serve on the board of direc­tors
of the Japan Farming Company. It had perhaps always been
Katayama's intention to turn the farming project and the colony
into a socialist utopia. In any case, Katayama needed Tom Brown
Okasaki's signature to file the company's charter with the state.
Not too surprisingly, Tom Brown refused to sign. Instead he
reported Katayama's actions to Iwasaki, who was so angry with
Katayama for breaking his promise and continuing his associa­tion
with socialists that he formally dissolved the company and
withdrew all support for the project. Katayama subsequently
returned to Japan in February 1907, and Tom Brown sold the
58
10,000 acres of land in Live Oak and McMullen counties, there­after
concentrating his activities more in the Houston area.
After this episode in Texas Katayama continued his work
for socialist causes. He later returned to the United States but
never again visited Texas. In 1921 he went to Moscow, where he
lived out the rest of his life. After his death in 1933 at the age
of 74, Sen Katayama was honored by Soviet officials with a formal
burial in the Kremlin.
While Katayama and Okasaki's push to bring colonists to
Texas was aborted, other contemporary efforts gave birth to a
surge of Japanese into the state. One source of interest in immigra­tion
came from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St.
Louis. This world's fair, which was held to commemorate the
Louisiana Purchase 100 years before, quickly became a popular
meeting place for wealthy and important Japanese traveling in
the United States. Sen Katayama stopped there on his way to the
Second International held in Amsterdam, while other visitors
included Japanese businessmen and members of japan's parlia­ment.
The setting was conducive to conversation and exchange
of information. One topic arousing special interest was the Japa­nese
farming experiments then under way around Houston.
One man who found the idea of large-scale rice farming
intriguing was Shinpei Maekawa, an official delegate to the expo­sition
from Osaka. Maekawa was a handsome and likeable young
man with a degree from an Osaka college. Although he was heir
to great wealth, Maekawa was not satisfied with relaxing in
luxury; he was a doer. Before returning to Japan he and several
friends stopped in Texas to look into the possibility of investing
in a rice farm. Because two of Maekawa's traveling companions
were current or former members of parliament, the group no
doubt visited the farm of former representative Seito Saibara.
Over the years the Saibara farm had become something of a
showpiece; it was visited often by businessmen, politicians and
informed travelers from Japan who were curious to see a large­scale
rice farming colony.
Maekawa was impressed, and he spent the next year in
Japan making preparations to emigrate. Late in 1906 he returned
to Texas with five young recruits, each with $500 to invest. Com­bined,
this was enough to put a down payment on 520 acres of
59
Shinpei Maekawa
land south of Houston. The property was near the railway station
of Erin and the tracks of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad.
It was purchased on the advice of Garret A. Dobbin, colonization
agent for the railroad company. Although it was his job to help
people like Maekawa, Dobbin also genuinely liked the Japanese.
He even helped Maekawa buy the farm equipment and supplies
that the group would need.
During the colony's first year, though, tragedy struck. In
a field accident Maekawa was pinned beneath a piece of his own
equipment. By the time help arrived Shinpei Maekawa was dead,
a victim perhaps of his own inexperience. Maekawa's accident,
however, was not an isolated one. A 1910 U.S. Immigration Com­mission
reported that "most of the accidents that befall the
Japanese are caused either from carelessness in the use of ma­chinery
or by injuries inflicted by mules:'
When Dobbin heard the news of the accident, he rushed
to the farm and wept over Maekawa's lifeless body. As a tribute
to his friend Dobbin renamed the railroad station at Erin Mykawa
60
Station. (In the process he slightly changed the spelling of Mae­kawa's
name.) Today, although the station no longer exists, the
road paralleling the railroad tracks south from Houston is still
called Mykawa Road.
~ ~
. ~
After the accident Maekawa's wife in Japan sent a man
to manage the farm, but the venture ended in failure several years
later. The nearby farm of Teisho Takeda, one of the men who
had first visited Texas with Maekawa, also folded about the same
time. Such farming failures were not unusual, since most of the
Japanese rice ventures around Houston were eventually aban­doned.
Why this was so is not readily apparent. After all, most
of the Japanese who bought farms had adequate financing and
a reliable pool of workers. Of course, problems which face all
farmers - bad weather, crop disease, insects - took their toll among
Japanese rice farmers. But there were other problems, too.
For example, early rice farmers in Texas, as is the case
today, were dependent on a reliable and steady flow of water to
keep their fields irrigated. During droughts smaller streams and
61
"Rice well" flume,
part of the rice
irrigation system,
El Campo
creeks were apt to dry up, possibly ruining the crop. Water wells
were more reliable, but they were also very expensive to drill,
often costing $1,000 or more. Because most Japanese in Texas had
limited finances, especially those on the smaller farms, they often
gambled and relied on wet weather to keep the creeks and rivers
running. Sometimes they lost.
The cooperative aspect of some of the Japanese farms also
became a problem when dissension arose over how the farms
should be run. Since few of the Japanese had real experience in
large-scale rice cultivation, honest differences of opinion were
bound to occur. Also the Japanese who financed and managed
the farms were not always farmers. Bankers, oil dealers, tea mer­chants,
students and landowners were among the first group of
Japanese "rice farmers" in Texas. Simple inexperience, lack of farm­ing
expertise and occasional mismanagement were all factors
leading to the downfall of some projects.
One problem faced by the Japanese in the first few years
was totally unexpected. Despite earlier visions that they might
eventually produce rice for export to Japan, the Japanese in Texas
at first had to sell their product regionally like other rice farmers.
But because the American public's taste for rice did not increase
62
with the farmers' ability to grow it, overproduction sometimes
occurred. Farmers were simply growing too much rice. When this
happened, prices fell and farms went out of business. Still this
was more the exception than the rule, since rice prices generally
rose until after the end of World War I in 1918.
Even though most Japanese rice ventures eventually went
bankrupt, some prospered for many years. Such was the case with
the Onishi colony. After bringing his wife, daughter and workers
from Japan in 1904, Rihei Onishi and his cousin, Toraichi Onishi,
settled on their farm in Webster and grew rice. Although neither
was a farmer, the two cousins managed well enough with the
assistance of their Japanese workers, most of whom had been
farmers in Japan. Rihei Onishi was even able to continue his work
as a journalist for the Jiji Shimpo on a part-time basis. He covered
stories such as the 1905 Portsmouth Conference in New Hamp­shire,
which ended the Russo-Japanese War. He also wrote a few
articles for emigration magazines in Japan.
japanese peace envoys and news reporters at the 1905 Portsmouth
Conference; Rihei Onishi is hatless, slightly right of center.
Most of the Onishi colonists were from Rihei's home
prefecture of Ehime on Shikoku, the same island that was the
63
Saibara ancestral home. Many were relatives of Rihei and Toraichi
Onishi. For example, Toraichi's brother, Soichi, and Rihei's two
brothers, Iwajiro Onishi and Eijiro Onishi Kondo, all worked on
the farm. The second cousin of all five of these men, Jitsuji Onishi,
also came over, making the colony very much a family affair.
The nature of the Onishi rice venture changed dramatical­ly
in January 1907, when some of the colonists moved onto 2,224
acres of land at "Prairie Bluff' in Wharton County on the Colorado
River. Situated near Mackay, a flag stop on the Southern Pacific
Railroad, the farm was financed by Japanese businessmen from
the Morimura Brothers trading company in New York. In 1910
most of the 17 men and six women members of the colony worked
100-acre tracts of land on a sharecropping basis, paying two-fifths
of their crop as rent. For this payment they were supplied with
land, housing and water for irrigation. The Onishis operated the
remaining rice fields and adjoining ranch land. They raised sor­ghum
and soybeans for the cattle and vegetables for themselves.
A portion of the property was covered in cotton grown by black
and Mexican-American sharecroppers.
Silo and thresher used for sorghum and soybeans, Onishi colony, 1917
One of the foremen hired by Rihei Onishi to help manage
the workers in the rice fields was Yonekichi Kagawa. In 1907
64
Onishi wrote to an agricultural college in Japan and asked that
the school's best students come work for him. Kagawa was one
of the two top graduates who came. Although he was not yet 20
years old when he arrived, Kagawa was put in charge of a group
of about 30 laborers, composed mainly of Japanese, but including
blacks, Anglos, Austrians, Mexican Americans and White
Russians as well.
Kagawa returned to Japan in 1913 to marry Kichi Mura­kami.
The newlyweds traveled to Wharton County, where they
worked on the Onishi farm for six years. In 1919 the Kagawas
moved near Webster to farm rice on their own and to bring up
their growing family. In all, the couple raised 12 children, most
of whom still live in Texas.
Yonekichi Kagawa; his
wife, Kichi; son, Thomas;
" 'C n t • Pc 6 " ',.. . oil and daughter, Fumi
The Japanese sharecroppers on the Onishi farm were
fairly isolated from one another on their 100-acre plots of land.
Even more difficult than visiting neighbors, however, was getting
into town. Recognizing this, the Onishis established a "company
65
Onishi colony headquarters, including company store, 1917
store;' where groceries and clothing could be purchased at prices
slightly lower than in town. But apart from serving as a retail
center, the company store was also a social center, a clearinghouse
for information and gossip. Although separated from one another
on their farms, the Japanese could thus maintain contact with
their friends and other countrymen in Wharton County.
Most of the Japanese immigrants in the Onishi colony
were men. This created real problems for the stability and future
of the colony. Without wives the men could not be expected to
work and remain on their farms forever. While some men did
have Japanese wives with them and others had temporarily left
their wives in Japan, the great majority were still unmarried. To
complicate matters, the incidence of Japanese men marrying local
women was very rare. This was in part because of white resis­tance
to such marriages and in part because of the preference
of Japanese men for women of their own race.
Seeing the problem, Rihei Onishi left for Japan in 1909
to recruit women who would marry his colonists. At least three
of the seven or eight women he eventually brought back with
him were what were known as "picture brides:' These were
women who had agreed to marry men they had never met.
Because the prospective bride and groom in such marriages were
in different countries, photographs were typically exchanged so
that each could register his or her approval or disapproval of the
other. This was a common method for finding a bride for Japanese
66
Picture brides disembarking at San Francisco, 1914
immigrant men at the time. When both parties were satisfied a
ceremony was held in Japan-the groom in absentia. The wedding
was then duly recorded, and the bride was free to go to America.
This marriage ceremony in Japan became crucial after the 1908
Gentlemen's Agreement, because unless a Japanese woman was
actually married to a man already in the United States, she would
usually be classified as a laborer and thus be ineligible for immi­gration.
In any case, authorities at the port of entry also exercised
a great deal of discretion concerning who they would and would
not let in, as Rihei Onishi soon discovered.
When Onishi and his group of Japanese women landed
in San Francisco, they were all refused entry. The port authorities
accused Onishi of trying to bring prostitutes into the country.
Although the facts are not clear, the women with Onishi had
presumably gone through a legal marriage ceremony in Japan,
even though every groom may not have yet received a photograph
of his bride. Possibly a few of the women were still single but
expected to be married once they reached Texas. This was highly
67
improbable, however, since Onishi surely knew the terms of the
Gentlemen's Agreement. In all likelihood, the San Francisco
authorities simply decided that Rihei and his group "looked" too
suspicious to be let in. It was certainly within their authority to
deny the Japanese entry. Also, in San Francisco the attitude toward
Japanese immigrants in 1909 was quite inimical, which could have
affected the discretionary policy of the local immigration office.
Onishi and his company were thus forced to make hasty
plans to sail to Mexico, where they hoped to disembark, then
travel overland to the border crossing at Eagle Pass, Texas. They
felt it might be easier to enter the country there than in San
Francisco. After a long and difficult journey the group finally
reached the Texas border, and, to the relief of all, they were
allowed to cross.
The Rihei Onishi and Iwajiro Onishi families, 1920
Front row, left to right: Frank {son of Iwajiro}; Mrs. Iwajiro;
Mrs. Rihei; Rihei; Massey {son of Rihei}; back: Nina {daughter of
Rihei}; Iwajiro; May, George and Julia {children of Rihei}
From its beginning in 1907 until 1919, the Onishi farm
in Wharton County was very successful. Its prosperity was linked
to the slow, if occasionally irregular, rise in the price of rice. From
the beginning of World War I in 1914, this upward trend acceler-
68
ated because of an increased demand for food from the warring
nations in Europe. But with the cessation of hostilities in 1918
and a return to European agricultural stability, the general de­mand
for rice slackened. Consequently the price of rice plum­meted.
Over the next several years rice fell from a wartime high
of $15 per 100 pounds to about $3, far lower than the $8 per 100
pounds that farmers received in 1904 when the Onishis harvested
their first crop.
The drop in rice prices devastated both Japanese and non­Japanese
farmers in Texas. In 1924, after 17 years on the same
land, the Onishi colony finally succumbed. The land was sold
to payoff debts, leaving employers, employees and sharecroppers
on their own. Many continued to farm in Texas, but most stayed
away from rice, concentrating more on vegetables and cotton.
Others moved to the cities, and a few probably returned to Japan
or went to California. A large number found jobs working for
other Japanese Texans, mostly in plant nurseries.
Even after the dispersal of the colony the cohesiveness
of the Onishi group remained remarkably strong. When the Great
Depression struck in the 1930's, these Japanese formed the Ehime
Chokin Kumiai, or Ehime Prefectural Savings Association. Mem­bers
of this "bank" pooled their money and then loaned it out to
members who needed it. To qualify as a member one had to be
an immigrant from Ehime Prefecture in Japan, which in this case
meant one was probably a former member of the Onishi colony.
Such organizations were common on the West Coast, but this was
the only Japanese association of its kind in Texas, and it continued
in operation until the beginning of World War II.
Rihei Onishi had traveled through war-torn Europe in
1919 and covered the Paris Peace Conference for his newspaper,
fiji Shimpo. On his return to the United States, he moved his family
to Massachusetts, and in 1920 he went back to Japan, where he
eventually became editor-in-chief of the paper. He died in 1945.
As of 1986 his three daughters and one son still live in Massa­chusetts;
his other son lives in Michigan.
The Onishi colonists, of course, were not the only Japanese
rice farmers in Texas. In terms of sheer numbers, the greatest
concentration of Japanese in 1909 was in the Webster area, where
there was a total of 66 men, eight women and two children living
69
Seito Saibara (foreground) and son Kiyoaki (on horse) during rice harvesting
on fIVe farms. The Saibara property near Webster had expanded
from its original 304 acres to nearly 900 acres, three-quarters of
which was under cultivation. rno other farms, together covering
1,000 acres, were also owned by Japanese, and two 400-acre farms
were leased. Whether one of these farms was the original Nishi­mura
property purchased in 1903 is not clear. All that is known
about Nishimura is that several years after establishing his farm,
he left Texas to resume his career as a tea merchant.
The story of the Saibaras after their settling in Webster
in 1903-1904, and of the people who followed them, is much better
".~
-_.'' ---", .-;;,.-.:.t
\ ~
Kiyoaki Saibara (far left) and friends
70
documented. In many respects, Seito Saibara's dream of a rice
colony was very similar to that of the Onishis. Saibara, however,
was able ultimately to attract more people. Like Onishi, Saibara
wrote articles for emigration magazines telling of opportunities
in Texas, but even more articles were written about Saibara. This
publicity brought more than one Japanese immigrant to Webster.
Finding an established colony there, many immigrants stayed,
their presence increasing the area's popularity among Japanese.
A typical pattern of settlement for an individual in either
the Webster or the Mackay colony might have unfolded as follows:
The immigrant arrives in Webster, having come perhaps through
invitation or because of simple curiosity. He works at one of the
large Japanese farms, learning the techniques of large-scale rice
culture. If he is single, he may live in a small bunkhouse and
eat meals prepared by the farm owner's wife. If he is married,
his wife has probably not accompanied him. Instead she is waiting
for her husband to send for her after he establishes himself and
saves enough money for her ship and train fare. If he is single,
he may take a picture bride, or he may actually return to Japan
in order to marry. When he is ready the immigrant becomes a
sharecropper and leases land. Land ownership may follow,
although many immigrants make a good living by only leasing
the land they farm. For the latter group, when crop yields fall
off, usually after seven or eight years, they move to another farm.
Those who do buy land, however, may need other Japanese to
help farm it, thus completing the settlement cycle. Naturally, there
were infinite variations on this general theme, but, as in all things
human, one thing was certain: Some immigrants would succeed,
and some would fail.
Sometimes the fine line between failure and success
depended on the ability of the Japanese to adapt to the large-scale
growing methods required on Texas rice farms. The experts
brought from Japan by Saibara were no doubt helpful in this
regard. In general, the style of rice cultivation employed by the
colonists was similar to that used by other Texas rice farmers,
and in many ways it was patterned after the large-scale growing
of wheat and oats in the American Midwest.
For example, the process of growing rice on a large scale
began with the seeding of fields using a large, cylindrical drum.
71
Known as a "drill," this device was filled with seed rice and pulled
across the terrain by draft animals. The drill neatly and efficiently
sowed seeds into rows. In later years this device was replaced
on some farms by seeding from airplanes. But in addition to
planting most of their land with machinery, some Japanese still
planted small areas of land by hand, as was the practice in Japan.
Whether this was done for practical reasons or out of nostalgia
is not known.
After planting in early to mid-April, the rice fields were
thereafter kept covered with three to six inches of water. A com­plex
system of canals and side ditches was used to bring water
from its source onto the fields. The sizes of fields ranged from
Z5 to 80 acres.
Rice harvesting, Matagorda County, c. 1908
As the crop ripened the fields were drained so that the
heavy harvest machinery would not sink in the mud. The time
of harvest depended greatly on the amount of water given the
crop during the growing season. The ripened rice was harvested
by a large machine known as a "binder." Drawn by four or five
mules, the binder cut the rice stalks and bound them together
in large bundles. The fmal process in the harvest involved a huge,
steam-powered threshing machine which separated the rice ker­nels
from the rest of the plant, with the rough rice ending up
in ZOO-pound bags or barrels.
Early observers reported that the Japanese at first hired
other Americans to run the complicated farm machinery. Numer-
72
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til (I)
~
~ .
::l.
()
"-I (\)
W 0 ;:s
......
~
(\)
0 ;:s
Ci)'
~
~ (I)
~
~
0
()
J;:)
;;s-
...... ~ .
~ ::l.
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ous people were required to operate the thresher and all its com­ponents
properly. Each American employee running a machine
was typically given a Japanese helper, who in the course of a year
would learn to run the machine and thus replace his teacher.
During the harvest, however, outside labor was always needed.
Even with the Japanese working cooperatively to harvest each
others' fields, there was enough work to go around for everyone.
The Onishi family (center) with rice bags, Mackay, 1908
After the rice was threshed the huge rice bags were sewn
up. If barrels were used, each barrel had to be capped. The rice
was then loaded on wagons, driven to a warehouse and unloaded.
To help with the harvest, young Japanese field hands on occasion
came from as far away as Colorado and New Mexico.
Running a large rice farm did not leave Japanese Texans
with much free time. A 1910 Immigration Commission report
revealed that:
... the Japanese remain so quietly by themselves that were
it not for their industry in improving their farms the neighbors
would not know of their existence.
Although the commission's finding here was probably overstated,
early Japanese immigrants in Texas often did keep to themselves,
74
Wagons delivering bagged rice for shipping and milling, Bay City,
Matagorda County, c. 1901
with the possible exception of church attendance for those who
were Christians. A few of the Japanese, like Seito Saibara, were
converted to Christianity in Japan. Others were first exposed to
Western religious beliefs in Japanese schools run by Western
churches and were later converted to Christianity in the United
States. Incidentally, these church schools in Japan were where
many Japanese immigrants first learned English and also may
have been where some of them first got the idea of emigrating
to the United States.
The generally good relationship between Japanese and
their neighbors in Texas was in sharp contrast to the often bitter
race relations on the West Coast. One reason for this difference
was the small number of Japanese living in Texas as compared
to California, where most Japanese Americans resided. For exam­ple,
in 1920 there were 449 Japanese Texans in a state population
of more than 41/2 million, while in California's population of less
than 3V2 million, more than 70,000 Japanese could be found. The
more Japanese there were, the more likely they would be seen
as a threat by others. This meant that a trait like the noted "indus­triousness"
of Japanese immigrants could be viewed in Texas as
an economic contribution to the state, while in California it could
be seen as an economic threat to the jobs of white workers. Of
course, prejudice and discrimination against Japanese did occur
in Texas but never on the scale experienced in California.
75
The major complaint voiced by Japanese in Texas did not
concern state law or mistreatment by their neighbors, as was often
the case in California. Rather it dealt with the unequal treatment
of Japanese in federal law, specifIcally with regard to citizenship.
The inability to become American citizens greatly decreased the
motivation for Japanese to invest their lives and fortunes in the
future of the United States, as so many European immigrants
before them had been allowed to do. Of course, this was a contin­ual
sore spot for all Japanese in the United States, not only Japa­nese
in Texas. Moreover, it hurt the pride of potential Japanese
emigrants and may have kept many from coming to this country.
It is even uncertain whether Seito Saibara would have settled in
the US. had he known the law, because within three weeks of
his arrival in Houston in 1903, he fIled a declaration of his intent
to become an American citizen. Surprisingly, Houston officials
accepted the forms, with Consul General Uchida acting as wit­ness.
More than a year later, however, Saibara's forms were
declared invalid by US. officials. The naturalization office in
Houston apologetically notifIed Saibara, who was understandably
upset. He wanted to take his case to court but was counseled by
the senior Japanese official in the US. to have patience. In 1922
in Ozawa vs. u.s., however, the 1790 naturalization law which
Saibara wanted to challenge was upheld.
In the meantime Saibara decided to burn his bridges
behind him and go ahead with his colonization plans. In 1907
he asked his father, Masuya, to sell the family land in Japan and
come to Texas. Although the family only owned seven or eight
acres, in Japan this was enough to make them large landowners
with numerous tenants. When Masuya sold this property, he
invited his tenants to follow him to Texas. Many eventually did.
The 74-year-old Masuya had made his living in Japan by
leasing land and by producing soy bean paste, which is used to
make soup as well as soy sauce, a seasoning found in most Japa­nese
cooking. When Masuya came to Texas he brought all the
necessary equipment with him to carryon this home industry.
For the fIrst few years after his arrival, the colony enjoyed tradi­tional
Japanese cuisine. But as time passed and the difficulty in
obtaining ingredients increased, the Japanese in the Saibara colony
began to eat more American food . Quite naturally, however, rice,
76
which was often served with fish caught in a local lake or in
nearby streams, remained a staple in the colonists' diet.
Some American customs and habits were adopted by the
Japanese faster than others. For example, in style of dress the
Japanese wore the same kind of clothes as other Texas farmers.
A notable exception was the head and foot gear that many Japa­nese
preferred. Large, round-rimmed hats made of rice straw were
worn in the fields to protect workers against the sun, and tradi­tional
straw sandals known as zori were worn around the farm.
Japanese farmers, c. 1905
As in Japan, everyone left their sandals outside the entrances of
houses upon entering. In Japanese homes this custom served to
protect the tatami, or soft straw mats which covered the floors.
But in Texas, where the luxury of tatami did not exist, leaving
one's shoes at the door at least kept the wood floors clean.
One element of American life - the use of English - was
adopted slowly by most issei immigrants. Some were naturally
more fluent than others, perhaps having had English classes in
77
Japanese schools, but such classes were not the norm. Thus, as
with most immigrant groups, it was up to the second generation,
the nisei, to attain real fluency in English. At the same time,
however, many nisei also learned to speak Japanese from their
parents. When they got older they were able to act as their parents'
interpreters. Still, living on farms as many did, the Japanese issei
could easily get by with only a minimal knowledge of English.
This was one reason why farming attracted some of the early
Japanese immigrants, but of course it was not the only reason.
Some became farmers in Texas simply because they liked farming,
while others did it perhaps because it was all they knew.
But even those who were not farmers by trade, such as
Seito Saibara, seemed to enjoy farming. From his arrival in 1903
until 1924, Saibara was content to remain on his farm. At one
point, his friends in the Japanese government asked him to
become japan's minister of education, but Saibara declined the
generous offer. Over the years Saibara expanded his operations
into cotton farming and orange growing but unfortunately with
only limited success. For a time he even owned a nursery with
a branch office in Mobile, Alabama, but it later went out of
business. Following the crash in rice prices after World War I,
Saibara somehow managed to hang on. In 1924, however, federal
legislation accomplished what a drop in rice prices could not.
By halting all Japanese immigration into the United States, the
1924 Johnson-Reed Act crushed any remaining hope for the future
growth of Saibara's colony.
Deeply disillusioned, 63-year-old Seito Saibara and his
wife, Taiko, left Texas in 1924 and settled in Pindamonhangaba,
Brazil, in the Amazon River basin. During the next eight and a
half years Seito farmed rice and started a Japanese colony. In 1932
the Saibaras decided to go back to Texas for a visit, then travel
on to Japan to meet with government officials concerning the
establishment of a tomato-growing venture in Taiwan. Seito
became seriously ill, however, so in 1937 he and Taiko returned
to Webster to the farm that Kiyoaki had operated since their
departure. Because of the 1924 federal law, however, the govern­ment
informed the couple that they could only stay for a week.
When he learned this Seito called Washington, D.C., and talked
to Henry Stimson, an old friend who had been secretary of state
78
Seito Saibara's welcoming party, Webste~ 1932, when he was en route
from Brazil to Japan. Seito is in the second row, just left of center.
Members of the Kiyoaki Saibara, Kobayashi, Watanabe, Kagawa and
Sawamura families surround him.
from 1929 to 1932 during the Hoover Administration. Coinci­dentally,
Stimson was also secretary of war during World War
II. When Seito explained that he wanted to live out his life in
this country and be with his family and friends during his last
days, a sympathetic Stimson made the necessary arrangements
for him to stay.
1Wo years later, in April of 1939 at the age of 78, Seito
Saibara died and was buried in a family plot purchased years
before. His funeral was held in Webster Presbyterian Church,
where he had been a faithful and devoted member of the congre­gation
for many years.
Seito's son, Kiyoaki, continued to farm rice until he retired
in 1964 at age 79. One of his sons, Robert, farmed rice after World
War II but later decided not to continue. So in 1972, when Kiyoaki
died, Seito Saibara's dream of a large Japanese rice colony died
with him. Ironically, the area south of Houston near the old
Saibara farm is today one of the richest rice-producing regions
in the state.
79
four
Japanese-Texan rice growers in the early 20th century did
not confine themselves to the Saibara and Onishi colonies.
Many Japanese farms dotted the plains along the southeast
Texas gulf. For the most part these were large-scale projects
requiring considerable sums of capital. Although profit was
always a consideration, the reasons for promoting such ventures
varied from owner to owner.
Some, like Saibara and the Onishi cousins, were interested
in attracting Japanese families who would settle down as tenant
farmers or as landowners. Less altruistic were others who simply
wanted to develop their own land by using less expensive Japa­nese
laborers. An example of this latter type of settlement arose
in southeast Texas near Beaumont and the small town of Fannett
in Jefferson County.
In 1904, when Shinpei Maekawa visited Texas to look into
the prospects for farming rice, one of his three traveling compan­ions
was Yoshio Mayumi, a banker, wealthy landowner and
former member of the Japanese parliament. After the group's
initial visit, Mayumi returned to Texas in 1906 with a number
81
of Japanese men, including Maekawa and Teisho Takeda. Both
Maekawa and Takeda established farms south of Houston, but
Mayumi purchased 1,734 acres of land near Fannett, ten miles
south of Beaumont. He paid $15,000 cash for this property, which
included water wells, pumps and several old houses. A balance
of $20,000 plus interest was due in fIVe years.
In 1906 eight men from Yoshio Mayumi's home town in
Mie Prefecture on the main island of Honshu came to Fannett
as contract laborers. Seven more followed the next year. The exact
terms of the thre